I am currently trying to establish a clear picture of pure/mixed/entangled/separable/superposed states. In the following I will always assume a basis of $|1\rangle$ and $|0\rangle$ for my quantum systems. This is what I have so far:
- superposed: A superposition of two states which a system $A$ can occupy, so $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|1\rangle_A+|1\rangle_A)$
- seperable: $|1\rangle_A|0\rangle_B$ A state is called separable, if its an element of the (tensor)product basis of system $A$ and $B$ (for all possible choices of bases)
- entangled: $\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(|0\rangle_A|1\rangle_B+|1\rangle_A|0\rangle_B)$ is not a state within the product basis (again for all possible bases).
- mixed state: Is a statistical mixture, so for instance $|1\rangle$ with probability $1/2$ and $|0\rangle$ with probability $1/2$
- pure state: Not a mixed state, no statistical mixture
I hope that the above examples and classifications are correct. If not it would be great if you could correct me. Or add further cases, if this list is incomplete.
On wikipedia I read about quantum entanglement
Another way to say this is that while the von Neumann entropy of the whole state is zero (as it is for any pure state), the entropy of the subsystems is greater than zero.
which is perfectly fine. However I also read on wikipedia a criterion for mixed states:
Another, equivalent, criterion is that the von Neumann entropy is 0 for a pure state, and strictly positive for a mixed state.
So does this imply that if I look at the subsystems of an entangled state, that they are in a mixed state? Sounds strange... What would be the statistical mixture in that case?
Moreover I also wanted to ask, whether you had further illustrative examples for the different states I tried to describe above. Or any dangerous cases, where one might think a state of one kind to be the other?