Question about properites of tensor product

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The discussion focuses on the properties of tensor products involving Pauli matrices and identity matrices. The user poses three questions regarding the equivalence of tensor product expressions, specifically examining the validity of certain equalities involving matrices A and B. The consensus is that the first expression is correct, while the second and third expressions are incorrect due to the differing orders of the tensors involved. The key takeaway is that all terms in a tensor product must maintain the same order to be considered equivalent.

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td21
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They are being 2 by 2 matrices and I being the identity. Physically they are Pauli matrices.

1. Is $$((A\otimes I\otimes I) + (I\otimes A\otimes I) + (I\otimes I\otimes A))\otimes B$$

= $$(A\otimes I\otimes I)\otimes B + (I\otimes A\otimes I)\otimes B + (I\otimes I\otimes A)\otimes B$$? I think so.

2. Is $$(A\otimes I\otimes I)\otimes B + (I\otimes A\otimes I)\otimes B + (I\otimes I\otimes A)\otimes B$$=

$$(A\otimes B)\otimes (I\otimes I)\otimes (I\otimes I) + (I\otimes I)\otimes (A\otimes B)\otimes (I\otimes I) + (I\otimes I)\otimes(I\otimes I)\otimes(A\otimes B)$$? I am not sure.

Note that they are no scalar product here. I ask 2 because I stumbled upon the RHS of 2 and hope to know if it can be factored out as the LHS of 1. So basically I reverse the line of reason to ask these two questions. Looking at the LHS of 1., I also want to know:

3. Is $$((A\otimes I\otimes I) + (I\otimes A\otimes I) + (I\otimes I\otimes A))\otimes B$$
= $$((A\otimes I\otimes I) + (I\otimes A\otimes I) + (I\otimes I\otimes A))\otimes (B\otimes I\otimes I)$$
= $$((A\otimes I\otimes I) + (I\otimes A\otimes I) + (I\otimes I\otimes A))\otimes (I\otimes B\otimes I)$$
=$$((A\otimes I\otimes I) + (I\otimes A\otimes I) + (I\otimes I\otimes A))\otimes (I\otimes I\otimes B)$$? I do not think so as I do not think I can enlarge the dimension of B here?
This is not homework.
 
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1 is correct.
2 is not, because the terms on the LHS are order-4 tensors and those on the RHS are order-6 tensors. If the atomic elements all have the same order then each term has to have the same number of ##\otimes## symbols in it.
3 is not correct, for the same reason.
 

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