Majorana representation for mixed states
Eduardo Serrano-Ensástiga, Daniel Braun
Abstract
We generalize the Majorana stellar representation of spin-$s$ pure states to mixed states, and in general to any Hermitian operator, defining a bijective correspondence between three spaces: the spin-density matrices, a projective space of homogeneous polynomials of four variables, and a set of equivalence classes of points (constellations) on spheres of different radii. The representation behaves well under rotations by construction, and also under partial traces where the reduced density matrices inherit their constellation classes from the original state $\ensuremath{\rho}$. We express several concepts and operations related to density matrices in terms of the corresponding polynomials, such as the anticoherence criterion and the tensor representation of spin-$s$ states described in Giraud et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 114, 080401 (2015)].