# Problem 2.2 in Nielsen & Chuang - Properties of the Schmidt number

This question has been asked here: "Problem 2.2 in Nielsen & Chuang - Properties of the Schmidt number", but no answer has been provided there yet, thus I move it here.

The problem is stated below. This is problem 2.2 (not exercise 2.2) in Nielsen & Chuang (Page 117 in the newest version).

Suppose $$|\psi\rangle$$ is a pure state of a composite system with components $$A$$ and $$B$$, such that: $$|\psi\rangle = \alpha \rvert \phi \rangle + \beta \rvert \gamma \rangle$$ Prove that: $$\operatorname{Sch}(\psi) \geq | \operatorname{Sch}(\phi) - \operatorname{Sch}(\gamma)|$$ where $$\operatorname{Sch}(x)$$ is the Schmidt number of the pure state labeled $$x$$.

The link above provide some attempts, but not quite succeed. Any help is appreciated.

Following your attempt we have \begin{align*} | \phi \rangle &= \sum_i \phi_i | a_i^{\phi} \rangle | b_i^{\phi} \rangle\\ | \gamma \rangle &= \sum_i \gamma_i | a_i^{\gamma} \rangle | b_i^{\gamma} \rangle, \end{align*} $$\rho \equiv \operatorname{tr}_B(| \psi \rangle \langle \psi |) = |\alpha|^2 \rho_{\phi \phi} + |\beta|^2 \rho_{\gamma \gamma} + \alpha \bar{\beta} \rho_{\phi \gamma} + \bar{\alpha} \beta \rho_{\gamma \phi},$$ where $$\rho_{\phi \phi} \equiv \operatorname{tr}_B(| \phi \rangle \langle \phi |) = \sum_i \phi_i^2 | a_i^{\phi} \rangle \langle a_i^{\phi} | \\ \rho_{\gamma \gamma} \equiv \operatorname{tr}_B(| \gamma \rangle \langle \gamma |) = \sum_i \gamma_i^2 | a_i^{\gamma} \rangle \langle a_i^{\gamma} | \\ \rho_{\phi \gamma}\equiv \operatorname{tr}_B(| \phi \rangle \langle \gamma |) = \sum_i \phi_i | a_i^{\phi} \rangle \sum_j \gamma_j \langle b_j^{\gamma} | b_i^{\phi} \rangle \langle a_j^{\gamma} | \\ \rho_{\gamma \phi}\equiv \operatorname{tr}_B(| \gamma \rangle \langle \phi |) = \sum_i \gamma_i | a_i^{\gamma} \rangle \sum_j \phi_j \langle b_j^{\phi} | b_i^{\gamma} \rangle \langle a_j^{\phi} |.$$ Now observe that for the following subspace of the first subsystem $$H_\alpha = \text{span}\{| a_1^{\phi} \rangle, | a_2^{\phi} \rangle, ... ; | a_1^{\gamma} \rangle, | a_2^{\gamma} \rangle, ... \}$$ we have that $$\rho_{\phi \phi} (H_\alpha^\perp) = \rho_{\gamma \gamma} (H_\alpha^\perp) = \rho_{\phi \gamma} (H_\alpha^\perp) = \rho_{\gamma \phi} (H_\alpha^\perp) = 0$$ Thus $$\rho(H_\alpha^\perp)=0$$, which means that $$\text{rank}(\rho)\leq \text{dim}(H_\alpha)$$. Hence $$\text{Sch}(\psi) \leq \text{Sch}(\phi) + \text{Sch}(\gamma)$$ This is just a triangle inequality. To obtain the necessary just apply the above inequality to $$\alpha \rvert \phi \rangle = |\psi\rangle - \beta \rvert \gamma \rangle$$ and $$\beta \rvert \gamma \rangle = |\psi\rangle - \alpha \rvert \phi \rangle$$
If $$\sch{\phi} \ne \sch{\gamma}$$ then let's assume that the statement of the problem does not hold, so we have: $$\sch{\psi} \lt | \sch{\phi} - \sch{\gamma}| \tag{1}\label{1}$$ Without loss of generality we can assume that $$\sch{\phi} > \sch{\gamma}$$. From this we have: $$\sch{\phi} > \sch{\gamma} + \sch{\psi} \tag{2}\label{2}$$ We can write: $$\ket{\phi} = \frac{\beta}{\alpha} \ket{\gamma} - \frac{1}{\alpha} \ket{\psi} \tag{3}\label{3}$$ We can write the Schmidt decomposition of $$\ket{\gamma}$$ and $$\ket{\psi}$$ as: $$\ket{\gamma} = \sum_{i=1}^{\sch{\gamma}} \gamma_i \ket{a_i^{\gamma}} \ket{b_i^{\gamma}} \\ \ket{\psi} = \sum_{i=1}^{\sch{\psi}} \psi_i \ket{a_i^{\psi}} \ket{b_i^{\psi}}$$ Plugging these into $$\eqref{3}$$, we have: $$\ket{\phi} = \sum_{i=1}^{\sch{\gamma} + \sch{\psi}} \delta_i \ket{a_i^{\delta}} \ket{b_i^{\delta}} \tag{4}\label{4}$$ where $$\cases{\delta_i }{\frac{\beta}{\alpha} \gamma_i}{-\frac{1}{\alpha} \psi_i}\\ \cases{a_i^{\delta}}{a_i^{\gamma}}{a_i^{\psi}}\\ \cases{b_i^{\delta}}{b_i^{\gamma}}{b_i^{\psi}}$$ Now we can invoke the result of Problem 2.2 (2) from Nielsen and Chuang. This says:
Suppose $$\ket{\psi} = \sum_j \ket{\alpha_j}\ket{\beta_j}$$ is a representation for $$\ket{\psi}$$, where $$\ket{\alpha_j}$$ and $$\ket{\beta_j}$$ are (un-normalized) states for systems $$A$$ and $$B$$, respectively. Prove that the number of terms in such a decomposition is greater than or equal to the Schmidt number of $$\psi$$, $$\sch{\psi}$$.
Applying this to \eqref{4}, we obtain: $$\sch{\phi} \le \sch{\gamma} + \sch{\psi} \tag{5}\label{5}$$ This contradicts $$\eqref{2}$$ which is derived from $$\eqref{1}$$, so we must have $$\sch{\psi} \ge | \sch{\phi} - \sch{\gamma}|$$.