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4

One thing you might want to do is write the vector $\vec{a}$ as some magnitude $\theta$ times a unit vector {a1, a2, a3}. Then calculate $\exp(i \theta \,a\cdot\sigma)$. This will allow you to get rid of those factors of $\sqrt{a_1^2+a_2^2+a_3^2}$, which are just some $\theta$ anyway. Here it is in Mathematica:a = \[Theta] {a1, a2, a3}; b = a.Array[...

2

For the first part, you can use MatrixExp. Since you are interested in trigonometric form, I would suggest using polar coordinates from the beginning. p0 = PauliMatrix[0]; p1 = PauliMatrix[1]; p2 = PauliMatrix[2]; p3 = PauliMatrix[3]; a1 = a Sin[q1] Cos[q2]; a2 = a Sin[q1] Sin[q2]; a3 = a Cos[q1]; m = a1 p1 + a2 p2 + a3 p3; m1 = MatrixExp[I m] // ...

1

You can directly use the function pauliReduce that I defined in this answer: a = {a1, a2, a3} (* ==> {a1, a2, a3} *) a.{σ[1], σ[2], σ[3]} (* ==> a1 σ[1] + a2 σ[2] + a3 σ[3] *) pauliReduce[ MatrixExp[I a.{σ[1], σ[2], σ[3]}]] \frac{1} {\sqrt{\text{a1}^2+\text{a2}^2+\text{a3}^2}}\left(\hat{1} \sqrt{\text{a1}^2+\text{a2}^2+\text{a3}^2} \cos ...

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