\section{Probabilistic Bits} \definition{} As we already know, a \textit{classical bit} may take the values \texttt{0} and \texttt{1}. \par We can model this with a two-sided coin, one face of which is labeled \texttt{0}, and the other, \texttt{1}. \par \vspace{2mm} Of course, if we toss such a \say{bit-coin,} we'll get either \texttt{0} or \texttt{1}. \par We'll denote the probability of getting \texttt{0} as $p_0$, and the probability of getting \texttt{1} as $p_1$. \par As with all probabilities, $p_0 + p_1$ must be equal to 1. \vfill \definition{} Say we toss a \say{bit-coin} and don't observe the result. We now have a \textit{probabilistic bit}, with a probability $p_0$ of being \texttt{0}, and a probability $p_1$ of being \texttt{1}. \vspace{2mm} We'll represent this probabilistic bit's \textit{state} as a vector: $\left[\begin{smallmatrix} p_0 \\ p_1 \end{smallmatrix}\right]$ \par We do \textbf{not} assume this coin is fair, and thus $p_0$ might not equal $p_1$. \note{ This may seem a bit redundant: since $p_0 + p_1$, we can always calculate one probability given the other. \\ We'll still include both probabilities in the state vector, since this provides a clearer analogy to quantum bits. } \vfill \definition{} The simplest probabilistic bit states are of course $[0]$ and $[1]$, defined as follows: \begin{itemize} \item $[0] = \left[\begin{smallmatrix} 1 \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix}\right]$ \item $[1] = \left[\begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ 1 \end{smallmatrix}\right]$ \end{itemize} That is, $[0]$ represents a bit that we known to be \texttt{0}, \par and $[1]$ represents a bit we know to be \texttt{1}. \vfill \definition{} $[0]$ and $[1]$ form a \textit{basis} for all possible probabilistic bit states: \par Every other probabilistic bit can be written as a \textit{linear combination} of $[0]$ and $[1]$: \begin{equation*} \begin{bmatrix} p_0 \\ p_1 \end{bmatrix} = p_0 \begin{bmatrix} 1 \\ 0 \end{bmatrix} + p_1 \begin{bmatrix} 0 \\ 1 \end{bmatrix} = p_0 [0] + p_1 [1] \end{equation*} \vfill \pagebreak \problem{} Every possible state of a probabilistic bit is a two-dimensional vector. \par Draw all possible states on the axis below. \begin{center} \begin{tikzpicture}[scale = 2.0] \fill[color = black] (0, 0) circle[radius=0.05]; \node[below left] at (0, 0) {$\left[\begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix}\right]$}; \draw[->] (0, 0) -- (1.2, 0); \node[right] at (1.2, 0) {$p_0$}; \fill[color = oblue] (1, 0) circle[radius=0.05]; \node[below] at (1, 0) {$[0]$}; \draw[->] (0, 0) -- (0, 1.2); \node[above] at (0, 1.2) {$p_1$}; \fill[color = oblue] (0, 1) circle[radius=0.05]; \node[left] at (0, 1) {$[1]$}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{center} \begin{solution} \begin{center} \begin{tikzpicture}[scale = 2.0] \fill[color = black] (0, 0) circle[radius=0.05]; \node[below left] at (0, 0) {$\left[\begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix}\right]$}; \draw[ored, -, line width = 2] (0, 1) -- (1, 0); \draw[->] (0, 0) -- (1.2, 0); \node[right] at (1.2, 0) {$p_0$}; \fill[color = oblue] (1, 0) circle[radius=0.05]; \node[below] at (1, 0) {$[0]$}; \draw[->] (0, 0) -- (0, 1.2); \node[above] at (0, 1.2) {$p_1$}; \fill[color = oblue] (0, 1) circle[radius=0.05]; \node[left] at (0, 1) {$[1]$}; \end{tikzpicture} \end{center} \end{solution} \vfill \pagebreak \section{Measuring Probabilistic Bits} \definition{} As we noted before, a probabilistic bit represents a coin we've tossed but haven't looked at. \par We do not know whether the bit is \texttt{0} or \texttt{1}, but we do know the probability of both of these outcomes. \par \vspace{2mm} If we \textit{measure} (or \textit{observe}) a probabilistic bit, we see either \texttt{0} or \texttt{1}---and thus our knowledge of its state is updated to either $[0]$ or $[1]$, since we now certainly know what face the coin landed on. \vspace{2mm} Since measurement changes what we know about a probabilistic bit, it changes the probabilistic bit's state. When we measure a bit, it's state \textit{collapses} to either $[0]$ or $[1]$, and the original state of the bit vanishes. We \textit{cannot} recover the state $[x_0, x_1]$ from a measured probabilistic bit. \definition{Multiple bits} Say we have two probabilistic bits, $x$ and $y$, \par with states $[x]=[ x_0, x_1]$ and $[y]=[y_0, y_1]$ \vspace{2mm} The \textit{compound state} of $[x]$ and $[y]$ is exactly what it sounds like: \par It is the probabilistic two-bit state $\ket{xy}$, where the probabilities of the first bit are determined by $[x]$, and the probabilities of the second are determined by $[y]$. \problem{} Say $[x] = [\nicefrac{2}{3}, \nicefrac{1}{3}]$ and $[y] = [\nicefrac{3}{4}, \nicefrac{1}{4}]$. \par \begin{itemize}[itemsep = 1mm] \item If we measure $x$ and $y$ simultaneously, \par what is the probability of getting each of \texttt{00}, \texttt{01}, \texttt{10}, and \texttt{11}? \item If we measure $y$ first and observe \texttt{1}, \par what is the probability of getting each of \texttt{00}, \texttt{01}, \texttt{10}, and \texttt{11}? \end{itemize} \note[Note]{$[x]$ and $[y]$ are column vectors, but I've written them horizontally to save space.} \vfill \problem{} Say $[x] = [\nicefrac{2}{3}, \nicefrac{1}{3}]$ and $[y] = [\nicefrac{3}{4}, \nicefrac{1}{4}]$. \par What is the probability that $x$ and $y$ produce different outcomes? \vfill \pagebreak \section{Tensor Products} \definition{Tensor Products} The \textit{tensor product} of two vectors is defined as follows: \begin{equation*} \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ x_2 \end{bmatrix} \otimes \begin{bmatrix} y_1 \\ y_2 \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \begin{bmatrix} y_1 \\ y_2 \end{bmatrix} \\[4mm] x_2 \begin{bmatrix} y_1 \\ y_2 \end{bmatrix} \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} x_1y_1 \\[1mm] x_1y_2 \\[1mm] x_2y_1 \\[1mm] x_2y_2 \\[0.5mm] \end{bmatrix} \end{equation*} That is, we take our first vector, multiply the second vector by each of its components, and stack the result. You could think of this as a generalization of scalar mulitiplication, where scalar mulitiplication is a tensor product with a vector in $\mathbb{R}^1$: \begin{equation*} a \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ x_2 \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} a_1 \end{bmatrix} \otimes \begin{bmatrix} y_1 \\ y_2 \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} a_1 \begin{bmatrix} y_1 \\ y_2 \end{bmatrix} \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} a_1y_1 \\[1mm] a_1y_2 \end{bmatrix} \end{equation*} \problem{} Say $x \in \mathbb{R}^n$ and $y \in \mathbb{R}^m$. \par What is the dimension of $x \otimes y$? \vfill \problem{} What is the pairwise tensor product $ \Bigl\{ \left[ \begin{smallmatrix} 1 \\ 0 \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix} \right], \left[ \begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ 1 \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix} \right], \left[ \begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ 0 \\ 1 \end{smallmatrix} \right] \Bigr\} \otimes \Bigl\{ \left[ \begin{smallmatrix} 1 \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix} \right], \left[ \begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ 1 \end{smallmatrix} \right] \Bigr\} $? \note{in other words, distribute the tensor product between every pair of vectors.} \vfill \problem{} What is the \textit{span} of the vectors we found in \ref{basistp}? \par In other words, what is the set of vectors that can be written as linear combinations of the vectors above? \vfill % This is wrong, but there's something here. % maybe fix later? % %Look through the above problems and convince yourself of the following fact: \par %If $a$ is a basis of $A$ and $b$ is a basis of $B$, $a \otimes b$ is a basis of $A \times B$. \par %\note{If you don't understand what this says, ask an instructor. \\ This is the reason we did the last few problems!} % %\begin{instructornote} % \textbf{The idea here is as follows:} % % If $a$ is in $\{\texttt{0}, \texttt{1}\}$ and $b$ is in $\{\texttt{0}, \texttt{1}\}$, % the values $ab$ can take are % $\{\texttt{0}, \texttt{1}\} \times \{\texttt{0}, \texttt{1}\} = \{\texttt{00}, \texttt{01}, \texttt{10}, \texttt{11}\}$. % % \vspace{2mm} % % The same is true of any other state set: if $a$ takes values in $A$ and $b$ takes values in $B$, \par % the compound state $(a,b)$ takes values in $A \times B$. % % \vspace{2mm} % % We would like to do the same with probabilistic bits. \par % Given bits $\ket{a}$ and $\ket{b}$, how should we represent the state of $\ket{ab}$? %\end{instructornote} \pagebreak \problem{} Say $[x] = [\nicefrac{2}{3}, \nicefrac{1}{3}]$ and $[y] = [\nicefrac{3}{4}, \nicefrac{1}{4}]$. \par What is $[x] \otimes [y]$? How does this relate to \ref{firstcompoundstate}? \vfill \problem{} The compound state of two vector-form bits is their tensor product. \par Compute the following. Is the result what we'd expect? \begin{itemize} \item $[0] \otimes [0]$ \item $[0] \otimes [1]$ \item $[1] \otimes [0]$ \item $[1] \otimes [1]$ \end{itemize} \hint{ Remember that $[0] = \left[\begin{smallmatrix} 1 \\ 0 \end{smallmatrix}\right]$ and $[1] = \left[\begin{smallmatrix} 0 \\ 1 \end{smallmatrix}\right]$. } \vfill \problem{} Of course, writing $[0] \otimes [1]$ is a bit excessive. We'll shorten this notation to $[01]$. \par \vspace{2mm} In fact, we could go further: if we wanted to write the set of bits $[1] \otimes [1] \otimes [0] \otimes [1]$, \par we could write $[1101]$---but a shorter alternative is $[13]$, since $13$ is \texttt{1101} in binary. \vspace{2mm} Write $[5]$ as three-bit probabilistic state. \par \begin{solution} $[5] = [101] = [1] \otimes [0] \otimes [1] = [0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0]^T$ \par Notice how we're counting from the top, with $[000] = [1,0,...,0]$ and $[111] = [0, ..., 0, 1]$. \end{solution} \vfill \problem{} Write the three-bit states $[0]$ through $[7]$ as column vectors. \par \hint{You do not need to compute every tensor product. Do a few and find the pattern.} \vfill \pagebreak \section{Operations on Probabilistic Bits} Now that we can write probabilistic bits as vectors, we can represent operations on these bits with linear transformations---in other words, as matrices. \definition{} Consider the NOT gate, which operates as follows: \par \begin{itemize} \item $\text{NOT}[0] = [1]$ \item $\text{NOT}[1] = [0]$ \end{itemize} What should NOT do to a probabilistic bit $[x_0, x_1]$? \par If we return to our coin analogy, we can think of the NOT operation as flipping a coin we have already tossed, without looking at its state. Thus, \begin{equation*} \text{NOT} \begin{bmatrix} x_0 \\ x_1 \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} x_1 \\ x_0 \end{bmatrix} \end{equation*} \begin{ORMCbox}{Review: Multiplying Vectors by Matrices}{black!10!white}{black!65!white} \begin{equation*} Av = \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 2 \\ 3 & 4 \\ \end{bmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} v_0 \\ v_1 \end{bmatrix} = \begin{bmatrix} 1v_0 + 2v_1 \\ 3v_0 + 4v_1 \end{bmatrix} \end{equation*} Note that each element of $Av$ is the dot product of a row in $A$ and a column in $v$. \end{ORMCbox} \problem{} Compute the following product: \begin{equation*} \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0.5 \\ 0 & 1 \end{bmatrix} \begin{bmatrix} 3 \\ 2 \end{bmatrix} \end{equation*} \vfill \generic{Remark:} Also, recall that every matrix is linear map, and that every linear map may be written as a matrix. \par We often use the terms \textit{matrix}, \textit{transformation}, and \textit{linear map} interchangably. \pagebreak \problem{} Find the matrix that represents the NOT operation on one probabilistic bit. \begin{solution} \begin{equation*} \begin{bmatrix} 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \end{bmatrix} \end{equation*} \end{solution} \vfill \problem{Extension by linearity} Say we have an arbitrary operation $M$. \par If we know how $M$ acts on $[1]$ and $[0]$, can we compute $M[x]$ for an arbitrary state $[x]$? \par Say $[x] = [x_0, x_1]$. \begin{itemize} \item What is the probability we observe $0$ when we measure $x$? \item What is the probability that we observe $M[0]$ when we measure $Mx$? \end{itemize} \vfill \problem{} Write $M[x_0, x_1]$ in terms of $M[0]$, $M[1]$, $x_0$, and $x_1$. \begin{solution} \begin{equation*} M \begin{bmatrix} x_0 \\ x_1 \end{bmatrix} = x_0 M \begin{bmatrix} 1 \\ 0 \end{bmatrix} + x_1 M \begin{bmatrix} 0 \\ 1 \end{bmatrix} = x_0 M [0] + x_1 M [1] \end{equation*} \end{solution} \vfill \generic{Remark:} Every matrix represents a \textit{linear} map, so the following is always true: \begin{equation*} A \times (px + qy) = pAx + qAy \end{equation*} \ref{linearextension} is just a special case of this fact. \pagebreak