kennyjensen says you're right about mixed states and superpositions being different:
i'm going to have to go with greenanemone on this one. a mixed state is
different than a superposition. a mixed state describes an ensemble of
states. maybe 1/2 of the states in the ensemble are in the state |00>+|01>
and maybe the other 1/2 are in the state |00>+|11>. a superposition
describes one state which could have components along a number of basis
states.
if you want to learn more about mixed states look up stuff on the "density
matrix." sakurai has info about it. but actually, nielson and chuang, a
quantum computing text, might be the best resource.
But I think that 'superposition' does have the meaning I intended.
Re: nitpicking....
i'm going to have to go with greenanemone on this one. a mixed state is different than a superposition. a mixed state describes an ensemble of states. maybe 1/2 of the states in the ensemble are in the state |00>+|01> and maybe the other 1/2 are in the state |00>+|11>. a superposition describes one state which could have components along a number of basis states. if you want to learn more about mixed states look up stuff on the "density matrix." sakurai has info about it. but actually, nielson and chuang, a quantum computing text, might be the best resource.But I think that 'superposition' does have the meaning I intended.