Past exam of the short options paper of the physics Prelims of the University of Oxford / 2022 / S03 / 2 / f

Let ${\theta }_j=j\pi /N$ and retain the positive spin beam at every stage. The overlap of successive positive eigenstates isThus the unconditional survival probability, relative to the original intensity, isThe last retained quantum state is $|{\psi }_{\pi }^{+}⟩=|\downarrow ⟩$, so its final negative-$z$ result is certain conditional on survival and adds no further factor. In particular $p_2=1/4$, $p_{10}\simeq 0.7805$, and $p_{100}\simeq 0.9756$. Since $\log \cos x=-x^2/2+O(x^4)$,This is a changing-measurement-axis form of the quantum Zeno effect: frequent selections steer the surviving spin through a continuous succession of nearby eigenstates.