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Tutorial5 Solution

This tutorial discusses measuring a single qubit operator U that has eigenvalues of ±1, making it both Hermitian and unitary. It shows that this measurement can be implemented by the quantum circuit that applies Hadamard gates before and after applying U. The circuit works by performing a projective measurement with projectors P+ and P−, which are equal to (I ± U)/2. These projectors project onto the ±1 eigenspaces of U. Measuring the first qubit of the output state corresponds to measuring the observable U.

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19 views

Tutorial5 Solution

This tutorial discusses measuring a single qubit operator U that has eigenvalues of ±1, making it both Hermitian and unitary. It shows that this measurement can be implemented by the quantum circuit that applies Hadamard gates before and after applying U. The circuit works by performing a projective measurement with projectors P+ and P−, which are equal to (I ± U)/2. These projectors project onto the ±1 eigenspaces of U. Measuring the first qubit of the output state corresponds to measuring the observable U.

Uploaded by

golge123321
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction to uantum Computing (IN2381) – W2023/2024 Tutorial 5 solution

Christian B. Mendl, Isabel Le, Wang Yu, Keefe Huang

Tutorial 5 (Measuring an operator1 )


Suppose U is a single qubit operator with eigenvalues ±1, so that U is both Hermitian and unitary, i.e., it can be
regarded both as an observable and a quantum gate. Suppose we wish to measure the observable U . That is, we
desire to obtain a measurement result indicating one of the two eigenvalues, and leaving a post-measurement state
which is the corresponding eigenvector. Show that this is implemented by the following quantum circuit:

|0i H H

|ψin i U |ψout i

This tutorial requires the concept of an orthogonal projection (see also the linear algebra cheatsheet): a square matrix P ∈ Cn×n is called
an orthogonal projection matrix if P is Hermitian (P † = P ) and P 2 = P , i.e., applying P a second time does not change the result any
more. Note that a geometric projection is a special case of this abstract definition.

Solution We compute the intermediate two-qubit states |ψ1 i, |ψ2 i, |ψ3 i shown below, which result from applying
the circuit gates from left to right:

|0i H H

|ψin i U |ψout i
|ψ1 i |ψ2 i |ψ3 i

1
|ψ1 i = (H |0i) ⊗ |ψin i = √ (|0i + |1i) ⊗ |ψin i , (1)
2
1 1
|ψ2 i = (controlled-U ) |ψ1 i = √ |0i ⊗ |ψin i + √ |1i ⊗ (U |ψin i), (2)
2 2
1 1
|ψ3 i = √ (H |0i) ⊗ |ψin i + √ (H |1i) ⊗ (U |ψin i)
2 2
1 1
= (|0i + |1i) ⊗ |ψin i + (|0i − |1i) ⊗ (U |ψin i)
2 2 (3)
I +U I −U
= |0i ⊗ |ψin i + |1i ⊗ |ψin i
2 2
= |0i ⊗ (P+ |ψin i) + |1i ⊗ (P− |ψin i)
where we have defined P± = 12 (I ± U ). The P± are orthogonal projectors: they are Hermitian since U is Hermitian
by assumption, and
1 1  1
P±2 = (I ± U )2 = I ± 2U + U 2 = (I ± U ) = P± .
4 4 2
In the last step we have used that U 2 = U † U = I. Moreover, the P± project onto orthogonal subspaces since
1 1
I − U 2 = 0.

P+ P− = (I + U )(I − U ) =
4 4
Since U = 1·P+ +(−1)·P− , we have found the spectral decomposition of U , i.e., the P± project onto the eigenspaces
of U corresponding to the eigenvalues ±1.
Now we show that the circuit can indeed be interpreted as measurement of |ψin i with measurement operators
P± : first, they satisfy the completeness relation since P+ + P− = I. Moreover, according to the last line of Eq. (3),
|ψ3 i is a sum of two orthogonal states, and the probability that the measurement (in the circuit diagram) of the first
qubit gives 0 or 1 is equal to the squared norm of the first and second state, respectively:

p(0) = k|0i ⊗ (P+ |ψin i)k2 = kP+ |ψin ik2 = hψin |P+† P+ |ψin i = hψin |P+ |ψin i
1 M. A. Nielsen, I. L. Chuang: Quantum Computation and Quantum Information. Cambridge University Press (2010), Exercise 4.34

1
and correspondingly p(1) = hψin |P− |ψin i. Directly after the measurement, the second qubit will be in the state

P+ |ψin i
|ψout i = if measured 0,
kP+ |ψin ik
P− |ψin i
|ψout i = if measured 1
kP− |ψin ik

which agrees with the definition of a quantum measurement with operators P± .

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