KL-Divergence of $Q(z|X)$ and $P(z)$ in Variational Autoencoder (VAE) I aim to understand how $D_{KL}[Q(z | X) || P(z)]$ can be converted to $\frac{1}{2} \sum_{k} (\Sigma(X) + \mu^{2}(X) - 1 - \log \Sigma(X))$, where $k$ is the dimension of the Gaussian distribution. 
We have known that $Q(z | X)$ distributes as $N(\mu(X), \Sigma(X))$ and $P(z)$ satisfies $N(0, 1)$. Therefore, I can understand 
$$D_{KL}[Q(z | X) || P(z)]  =  D_{KL}[N(\mu(X), \Sigma(X)) || N(0, 1) = \frac{1}{2} (\operatorname{tr}(\Sigma(X)) + \mu(X)^{T}\mu(X) - k - \log \det(\Sigma(X))).$$ 
We implement $\Sigma(X)$ as a vector as it's a diagonal matrix. 
However, I don't understand the following, 
$$D_{KL}[N(\mu(X), \Sigma(X)) || N(0, 1) = \frac{1}{2} \big(\Sigma_{k} \Sigma(X) + \Sigma_{k} \mu^{2}(X) - \Sigma_{k}1 - \log \prod_{k} \Sigma(X) \big).$$
Can anyone please enlighten me how is the last step deduced? 
 A: Let's start with the following expression you wrote:
$$D_{KL} \big[ Q(Z \mid X) \parallel P(z) \big] =
\frac{1}{2} \Big[
    \text{Tr} \big( \Sigma(X) \big)
    + \mu(X)^T \mu(X)
    -k
    - \log \det \big( \Sigma(X) \big)
\Big]$$
Then, convert everything to scalar notation. Let $\Sigma_j(X)$ be the $j$th entry along the diagonal of the covariance matrix, and let $\mu_j(X)$ be the $j$th entry of the mean vector. Note that: 1) the trace of a matrix is the sum of entries along the diagonal, 2) the inner product of a vector with itself is the sum of the squared entries, and 3) the determinant of a diagonal matrix is the product of entries along the diagonal. This gives:
$$\frac{1}{2} \Big[
    \sum_{j=1}^k \Sigma_j(X)
    + \sum_{j=1}^k \big( \mu_j(X) \big)^2
    -k
    - \log \prod_{j=1}^k \Sigma_j(X)
\Big]$$
Now let's make some substitutions. For the third term, note that $k = \sum_{j=1}^k 1$. For the fourth term, the log of a product is equal to a sum of logs. This gives:
$$\frac{1}{2} \Big[
    \sum_{j=1}^k \Sigma_j(X)
    + \sum_{j=1}^k \big( \mu_j(X) \big)^2
    - \sum_{j=1}^k 1
    - \sum_{j=1}^k \log \Sigma_j(X)
\Big]$$
Finally, combine the sums to obtain your original expression:
$$\frac{1}{2} \sum_{j=1}^k \Big[
    \Sigma_j(X)
    + \big( \mu_j(X) \big)^2
    - 1
    - \log \Sigma_j(X)
\Big]$$
