Skip to main content

[Community Question] Linear-algebra: Pauli matrices span the set of $2 \times 2$ matrices over $\mathbb{C}$?

One of our user asked:

Define $B = \{\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}I, \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}X, \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}Y, \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}Z \}$, where:

$I = \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & 1 \\ \end{bmatrix}$, $X = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & 1 \\ 1 & 0 \\\end{bmatrix}$, $Y = \begin{bmatrix} 0 & i \\ -i & 0 \\ \end{bmatrix}$, and $Z = \begin{bmatrix} 1 & 0 \\ 0 & -1 \\ \end{bmatrix}$

I am trying to show that B (modified from the Pauli matrices) span the set of $2 \times 2$ matrices with entries in $\mathbb{C}$ (denote $\mathcal{M}_2(\mathbb{C})$).

If $A \in \mathcal{M}_2(\mathbb{C})$, then we can write:

$A = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} \begin{bmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \\ \end{bmatrix}$ for some $a, b, c, d \in \mathbb{C}$.

I think that I want to show that $A = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(\lambda_0I + \lambda_1X + \lambda_2Y + \lambda_3Z)$?

This means I would need to show that the system given by: $\{a = \lambda_0 + \lambda_3, \ b = \lambda_1 + \lambda_2i, \ c = \lambda_1 - \lambda_2i, \ d = \lambda_0 - \lambda_3\}$ is always solvable. How do I go about doing this? Or should I approach the question some other way?


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

[Community Question] Calculus: Manifold with boundary - finding the boundary

One of our user asked: I have the manifold with boundary $M:= \lbrace (x_1,x_2,x_3) \in \mathbb R^3 : x_1\geq 0, x_1^2+x_2^2+x_3^2=1\rbrace \cup\lbrace (x_1,x_2,x_3) \in \mathbb R^3 : x_1= 0, x_1^2+x_2^2+x_3^2\leq1\rbrace$ and I need to find the boundary of this manifold. I think it is $\lbrace (x_1,x_2,x_3) \in \mathbb R^n : x_1= 0, x_2^2+x_3^2=1\rbrace$ , the other option is that the boundary is the empty set? I think the first is right? Am I wrong?

[Community Question] Linear-algebra: Are linear transformations between infinite dimensional vector spaces always differentiable?

One of our user asked: In class we saw that every linear transformation is differentiable (since there's always a linear approximation for them) and we also saw that a differentiable function must be continuous, so it must be true that all linear operators are continuous, however, I just read that between infinite dimensional vector spaces this is not necessarily true. I would like to know where's the flaw in my reasoning (I suspect that linear transformations between infinite dimensional vector spaces are not always differentiable).