Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2019 / iii / Paper 324 / 2 / a / Solution

Let $\Pi$ be the orthogonal projection onto the good linear subspace $\mathcal{G}$, and let $|\psi ⟩$ be a prepared unit vector with $p=⟨\psi |\Pi |\psi ⟩$. For $0<p<1$, defineThe amplitude amplification theorem states that, if the reflection operators about the initial state and the good subspace can be implemented, the iterationsatisfiesTo prove it, the two reflections preserve the linear span of $|g⟩,|b⟩$. In this ordered orthonormal basis, direct multiplication givesMultiplying this rotation matrix by $(\sin \alpha ,\cos \alpha {)}^T$ replaces $\alpha$ by $\alpha +2\theta$, proving the formula by mathematical induction.

For known $0<p\le 1/2$, choose $j$ to be a nearest nonnegative integer to $\pi /(4\theta )-1/2$. Then $|(2j+1)\theta -\pi /2|\le \theta$, so measurement finds the good subspace with probability at least $1-p$, using $O(p^{-1/2})$ iterations. For $p>1/2$, measurement of the initial state already has constant success probability. If $p=1$ success is certain; if $p=0$ these reflections cannot create any good component. If $|\psi ⟩=A|0⟩$, the initial-state reflection is $A(2|0⟩⟨0|-I)A^{†}$, implemented using quantum state preparation and its inverse quantum circuit.