Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2014/iii/paper-61/1/a/solution

Use the positive-sign quantum Fourier transform
Orthogonality of the finite-group characters makes a unitary operator. Here is the least positive period. The injectivity within one period implies : write , . Periodicity gives , and injectivity forces . Put .
Start with two available computational basis states . Apply to the first register and query the modular-addition quantum oracle:
Measure the second register. For some , the first register becomes the normalized coset state
The quantum Fourier transform of a periodic coset state is
Indeed, the inner geometric sum vanishes unless the Fourier label is a multiple of . Measuring that label gives for a uniformly random . Compute, by the Euclidean algorithm,
Thus exact period recovery from a Fourier sample succeeds whenever is coprime to , and
Here is the Euler totient function. The classical number-theory input is the totient lower bound from the Mertens product: for sufficiently large , for an absolute , with the finitely many small cases handled separately. For recovery is certain; for its probability is . The useful asymptotic probability statement is a lower bound, hence notation; it can be much larger for particular periods, for example a prime period.
There is one oracle query, two Fourier transforms and two measurements. The final greatest common divisor and division use polynomial time in . This meets the specified primitive-operation model without assuming that an arbitrary- Fourier gate is free in another gate model. If a constant success probability is wanted, repeat independently times and return the least common multiple of the candidates: each candidate divides , and one successful sample makes that least common multiple exactly .

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