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Hadamard test

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In quantum computation, the Hadamard test is a method used to create a random variable whose expected value is the expected real part , where is a quantum state and is a unitary gate acting on the space of .[1] The Hadamard test produces a random variable whose image is in and whose expected value is exactly . It is possible to modify the circuit to produce a random variable whose expected value is by applying an gate after the first Hadamard gate.[1]

Description of the circuit

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To perform the Hadamard test we first calculate the state . We then apply the unitary operator on conditioned on the first qubit to obtain the state . We then apply the Hadamard gate to the first qubit, yielding .

Measuring the first qubit, the result is with probability , in which case we output . The result is with probability , in which case we output . The expected value of the output will then be the difference between the two probabilities, which is

To obtain a random variable whose expectation is follow exactly the same procedure but start with .[2]

The Hadamard test has many applications in quantum algorithms such as the Aharonov-Jones-Landau algorithm. Via a very simple modification it can be used to compute inner product between two states and :[3] instead of starting from a state it suffice to start from the ground state , and perform two controlled operations on the ancilla qubit. Controlled on the ancilla register being , we apply the unitary that produces in the second register, and controlled on the ancilla register being in the state , we create in the second register. The expected value of the measurements of the ancilla qubits leads to an estimate of . The number of samples needed to estimate the expected value with absolute error is , because of a Chernoff bound. This value can be improved to using amplitude estimation techniques.[3]

References

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  1. ^ a b Dorit Aharonov Vaughan Jones, Zeph Landau (2009). "A Polynomial Quantum Algorithm for Approximating the Jones Polynomial". Algorithmica. 55 (3): 395–421. arXiv:quant-ph/0511096. doi:10.1007/s00453-008-9168-0. S2CID 7058660.
  2. ^ quantumalgorithms.org - Hadamard test. Open Publishing. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  3. ^ a b quantumalgorithms.org - Modified hadamard test. Open Publishing. Retrieved 27 February 2022.

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