Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2023 / ii / Paper 3 / 15D / d / Solution

After the first Hadamard gate and the controlled unitary gate, the state isThe final Hadamard gate givesHence the Hadamard test returns one with probabilityIf $U|\psi ⟩=|\psi ⟩$, then $\theta =0$ and the outcome is zero with certainty. If $U|\psi ⟩=-|\psi ⟩$, then $\theta =\pi$ modulo $2\pi$ and the outcome is one with certainty. The single measurement therefore distinguishes the two promised cases exactly.