🔗 Quantum Entanglement (Clear & Intuitive)

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What entanglement really means (beyond the buzzword)

Entanglement is not just correlation.
It is a non-classical correlation where:

The quantum state of the whole system is well-defined,
but the states of the individual qubits are not.


🔹 Start from separable (non-entangled) states

If two qubits are independent, their joint state can be written as:

|\psi\rangle_{AB} = |\phi\rangle_A \otimes |\chi\rangle_B

Example:
|0\rangle \otimes |1\rangle = |01\rangle

Here:

  • Qubit A has its own state
  • Qubit B has its own state
  • Knowing A tells you nothing about B

🔹 Create entanglement using a circuit

Canonical entanglement circuit:

|00\rangle \xrightarrow{H \otimes I} \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|00\rangle + |10\rangle)\xrightarrow{\text{CNOT}}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|00\rangle + |11\rangle)

Apply the Hadamard gate (H) to the first qubit, and do nothing (identity) to the second qubit.

Here:

  • (H) = Hadamard gate
  • (I) = Identity gate (no change)
  • (\otimes) = tensor (Kronecker) product

🧠 Intuition (before math)

Think of a two-qubit system:

QubitGate applied
Qubit 1Hadamard (H)
Qubit 2Identity (I → unchanged)

So ( H \otimes I ) is a two-qubit operation, even though only one qubit is actively modified.


🧮 Matrix form (why tensor product is needed)

Single-qubit matrices

H = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\begin{pmatrix}1 & 1 \\1 & -1\end{pmatrix},\quadI =\begin{pmatrix}1 & 0 \\0 & 1\end{pmatrix}

Tensor product ( H \otimes I )

H \otimes I=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\begin{pmatrix}I & I \\I & -I\end{pmatrix}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}\begin{pmatrix}1 & 0 & 1 & 0 \\0 & 1 & 0 & 1 \\1 & 0 & -1 & 0 \\0 & 1 & 0 & -1\end{pmatrix}

This is a 4×4 matrix because it acts on two qubits.


🎯 Action on basis states (this is the key)

Let’s apply ( H \otimes I ) to all computational basis states.

1️⃣ On ( |00\rangle )

(H \otimes I)|00\rangle= (H|0\rangle) \otimes (I|0\rangle)= \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|0\rangle + |1\rangle)\otimes |0\rangle

= \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|00\rangle + |10\rangle)


2️⃣ On ( |01\rangle )

(H \otimes I)|01\rangle= \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|01\rangle + |11\rangle)


3️⃣ On ( |10\rangle )

(H \otimes I)|10\rangle= \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|00\rangle - |10\rangle)


4️⃣ On ( |11\rangle )

(H \otimes I)|11\rangle= \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|01\rangle - |11\rangle)


🔁 Why this matters in entanglement

In the Bell-state circuit:

|00\rangle\xrightarrow{H \otimes I}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|00\rangle + |10\rangle)\xrightarrow{CNOT}\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|00\rangle + |11\rangle)

Key point:

  • (H \otimes I) creates superposition
  • CNOT turns superposition into entanglement

Without (H \otimes I), \textbf{CNOT} alone cannot create entanglement.


📌 Circuit diagram interpretation

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🔹 Why this state is entangled

Try to factor it:

\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|00\rangle + |11\rangle) \neq |\phi\rangle_A \otimes |\chi\rangle_B

👉 Impossible.

This is the defining property of entanglement. For more details read here: Link




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