von Neumann entropy and change of basis

3.6k Views Asked by At

The von Neumann entropy is defined as $S(\rho)=-Tr({\rho \ln \rho})$, where $\rho$ is density matrix.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Von_Neumann_entropy

In the above article it says:

S(ρ) is invariant under changes in the basis of ρ, that is, S(ρ) = S(UρU†), with U a unitary transformation.

How can we prove this statement?

We have that the trace is independent of the choice of basis in which the matrix $\rho$ is expressed: $$Tr(\rho)=Tr(U \rho U^{\dagger})$$ But in the case of the von Neumann entropy we have the $\ln \rho$, so a change of basis for $\rho$ gives: $$Tr[U \rho U^{\dagger}\ln (U \rho U^{\dagger})]$$ How is this equal to $Tr(\rho \ln\rho)$?

1

There are 1 best solutions below

0
On

I am not fully sure of the notations used here but the argument is standard for matrix computations.

Given that the von Neumann entropy can also be written as $\rho = -\sum_j \eta_j \log \eta_j $

where, $\eta_j$ are the eigenvalues of $\rho$, the only thing that remains to be proved is that eigenvalues are invariant under a change of basis. In other words,

$ U\rho U^\dagger = \sum_j \eta_j U|j><j|U^\dagger$

is an eigendecomposition with the same eigenvalues $\eta_j$. Therefore,

$ S(\rho) = S(U\rho U^\dagger) = - \sum_j \eta_j \log \eta_j$