Double Dilation ≠ Double Mixing (extended abstract)

Abstract

Density operators are one of the key ingredients of quantum theory. They can be constructed in two ways: via a convex sum of 'doubled kets' (i.e. mixing), and by tracing out part of a 'doubled' two-system ket (i.e. dilation). Both constructions can be iterated, yielding new mathematical species that have already found applications outside physics. However, as we show in this paper, the iterated constructions no longer yield the same mathematical species. Hence, the constructions 'mixing' and 'dilation' themselves are by no means equivalent. Concretely, when applying the Choi-Jamiolkowski isomorphism to the second iteration, dilation produces arbitrary symmetric bipartite states, while mixing only yields the disentangled ones. All results are proven using diagrams, and hence they hold not only for quantum theory, but also for a much more general class of process theories.