I'm curious how to show how this matrix:
$$c = \lambda |\phi^+\rangle \langle\phi^+| + (1-\lambda )|\phi^-\rangle \langle\phi^-|$$
is the Choi–Jamiołkowski matrix of a quantum channel for any $\lambda \in [0,1]$
I'm curious how to show how this matrix:
$$c = \lambda |\phi^+\rangle \langle\phi^+| + (1-\lambda )|\phi^-\rangle \langle\phi^-|$$
is the Choi–Jamiołkowski matrix of a quantum channel for any $\lambda \in [0,1]$
I'll use notation inspired from Watrous' book. Let $\Phi:\mathrm{Lin}(\mathcal X)\to\mathrm{Lin}(\mathcal Y)$ be a quantum channel (i.e. a CPTP map). Define its Choi representation as the operator $J(\Phi)\in\mathrm{Lin}(\mathcal Y\otimes\mathcal X)$ defined by $$J(\Phi) = \sum_{ij} \Phi(E_{ij})\otimes E_{ij},\qquad E_{ij}\equiv |i\rangle\!\langle j|.$$ Then you can verify that $J(\Phi)\ge0$ and $\operatorname{Tr}_{\mathcal Y}(J(\Phi))=I_{\mathcal X}$.
Vice versa, let $A\in\mathrm{Lin}(\mathcal Y\otimes\mathcal X)$ be a positive semidefinite linear operator such that $\operatorname{Tr}_{\mathcal Y}(A)=I_{\mathcal X}$, and define the linear map $\Phi_A\in\mathrm{Lin}(\mathrm{Lin}(\mathcal X),\mathrm{Lin}(\mathcal Y))$ via $$\Phi_A(E_{j\ell}) \equiv \sum_{ik} \langle i,j|A|k,\ell\rangle E_{ik}, \qquad \Phi_A(X) = \operatorname{Tr}_{\mathcal X}[A(I\otimes X^T)].$$ You can then verify that $\Phi_A$ is CPTP. Moreover, the two operations are one the inverse of the other: $\Phi_{J(\Phi)}=\Phi$.
In conclusion, a linear operator $A\in\mathrm{Lin}(\mathcal Y\otimes\mathcal X)$ is the Choi of a CPTP map iff it is positive semidefinite and satisfies the trace property.
In this case, verifying the positivity is immediate. Moreover, assuming $|\phi^\pm\rangle$ here denote maximally entangled states, the partial trace gives the identity for both terms, and thus the other condition is also trivially verified for all $\lambda\in[0,1]$.
I should note that in the definition I'm using here of "Choi representation" isn't a state, in that it's not normalised: $\mathrm{Tr}(J(\Phi))=\operatorname{dim}(\mathcal X)$. This is however trivially fixed by adding the appropriate normalisation factor in the definition.