- #1
bjnartowt
- 284
- 3
Homework Statement
Not relevant, but I have some work that reaches incorrect conclusions, and I can't see the mistake "in the middle".
Homework Equations
The Attempt at a Solution
[tex]\begin{array}{l}
{(XY)^\dag } = {\left( {\left\langle {a'} \right|X\left| {a''} \right\rangle \left\langle {a''} \right|Y\left| {a'''} \right\rangle } \right)^\dag } \\
= \left( {\left\langle {a'} \right|X{{\left| {a''} \right\rangle }^\dag }} \right)\left( {\left\langle {a''} \right|Y{{\left| {a'''} \right\rangle }^\dag }} \right) \\
= \left( {\left\langle {a''} \right|Y{{\left| {a'''} \right\rangle }^\dag }\left\langle {a'} \right|X{{\left| {a''} \right\rangle }^\dag }} \right) = {Y^\dag }{X^\dag } \\
\end{array}[/tex]
...Somewhere, here, is a mistake. I distributed the adjoint operation "+" (dagger) across the two scalars, "<||>", but if I did that, this would imply:
[tex]{\left( {XY} \right)^\dag } = \left\langle {a'} \right|X{\left| {a''} \right\rangle ^\dag }\left\langle {a''} \right|Y{\left| {a'''} \right\rangle ^\dag } = {X^\dag }{Y^\dag } = {\rm{uh - oh}}{\rm{.}}[/tex]