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Concept
Unitary matrix
Summary
In linear algebra, an invertible complex square matrix U is unitary if its conjugate transpose U* is also its inverse, that is, if
where I is the identity matrix.
In physics, especially in quantum mechanics, the conjugate transpose is referred to as the Hermitian adjoint of a matrix and is denoted by a dagger (†), so the equation above is written
For real numbers, the analogue of a unitary matrix is an orthogonal matrix. Unitary matrices have significant importance in quantum mechanics because they preserve norms, and thus, probability amplitudes.
For any unitary matrix U of finite size, the following hold:
Given two complex vectors x and y, multiplication by U preserves their inner product; that is, ⟨Ux, Uy⟩ = ⟨x, y⟩.
U is normal ().
U is diagonalizable; that is, U is unitarily similar to a diagonal matrix, as a consequence of the spectral theorem. Thus, U has a decomposition of the form where V is unitary, and D is diagonal and unitary.
Its eigenspaces are orthogonal.
U can be written as U = eiH, where e indicates the matrix exponential, i is the imaginary unit, and H is a Hermitian matrix.
For any nonnegative integer n, the set of all n × n unitary matrices with matrix multiplication forms a group, called the unitary group U(n).
Any square matrix with unit Euclidean norm is the average of two unitary matrices.
If U is a square, complex matrix, then the following conditions are equivalent:
is unitary.
is unitary.
is invertible with .
The columns of form an orthonormal basis of with respect to the usual inner product. In other words, .
The rows of form an orthonormal basis of with respect to the usual inner product. In other words, .
is an isometry with respect to the usual norm. That is, for all , where .
is a normal matrix (equivalently, there is an orthonormal basis formed by eigenvectors of ) with eigenvalues lying on the unit circle.
One general expression of a unitary matrix is
which depends on 4 real parameters (the phase of a, the phase of b, the relative magnitude between a and b, and the angle φ).
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