On a Parametrization of Purifications of a Qubit

This work provides, constructively, explicit one–one parametrizations of all purifications of a mixed state in dimension 2 and all joint purifications, if any, of two mixed states in the same dimension. The former is parametrized by SO(3, R), while the latter is parametrized by SO(2, R), except when the state being purified is already pure. These parametrizations are derived without any passage to the spectral decompositions of the state(s) being purified. Using this, we show how to calculate certain measures of quantum information. The appendix considers an alternative one–one parametrization of mixed states in C² C², which provides a different explicit construction of joint purifications. PACS: 03.67-a; 03.67-Hk; 03.67-Lx