IIT Delhi Summer Workshop on Quantum Computing

Tutorial 1

Notations For any x0 , x1 ∈ {0, 1}, |x0 x1 i represents |x0 i ⊗ |x1 i.

Operations on one/two qubits

1. Recall the Hadamard gate. It maps |0i to the state |+i = √12 (|0i + |1i), and |1i to the state
|−i = √12 (|0i − |1i). Consider the following quantum circuit:

(1) (2)
|ψi H H

The initial state is |ψi = α |0i + β |1i. What is the quantum state at (1) and (2) ?

2. The CNOT gate is a two-qubit gate that maps |00i to |00i, |01i to |01i, |10i to |11i and |11i
to |10i. Pictorially, it is represented as follows:

Let |ψi = α |0i + β |1i and |ψ 0 i = α0 |0i + β 0 |1i be two quantum states. Consider the following
circuit:

(1) (2) (3) (4)

The combined state of these two qubits at position (1) is |ψi ⊗ |ψ 0 i. What are the states at
positions (2), (3) and (4)?
Note that the states at (1) and (3) can be expressed as a tensor product of two vectors. Can
you always do that for (2) and (4)?

(Hint : let |ψi = |+i, and |ψ 0 i = |0i. Now, can you express (2) as a tensor product of two
vectors?)

3. The No-Cloning Theorem: One of the most fundamental (and non-intuitive? 1 ) properties
of quantum computing is that it is impossible to copy qubits. More formally, prove that there
exists no unitary matrix U acting on two qubits that satisfies the following property:
1 Non-intuitive for someone with a ‘classical mindset’ :)

1
 for each single qubit state |ψi, U(|ψi ⊗ |0i) = |ψi ⊗ |ψi .

Measurement Operations
1. Astha’s question- Measuring simultaneously vs measuring sequentially:
Suppose we have an (unknown) two qubit state |ψi = α00 |00i + α01 |01i + α10 |10i + α11 |11i.
We know that if we measure both the qubits together, then the probability of getting (b1 b2 )
is |αb1 b2 |2 (and the state collapses to |b1 b2 i).
Verify that the probability of getting (b1 b2 ) remains the same, irrespective of the order in
which qubits are measured, if we are measuring a single qubit at a time.
Note that this can be extended to a measurement on any number of qubits, i.e., for any n,
the probability of getting the measurement outcome (b1 ...bn ) remains same, irrespective of
the order in which the qubits are measured (you can also measure some qubits together and
others individually).

2. Consider the following quantum circuit that applies a Hadamard gate, followed by measure-
ment (in the computational basis):

0/1
|ψi H

(a) Suppose the input state is |+i. What would be the probability of the measurement
outcome being 0?
(b) Suppose the initial state is |0i with probability 1/2, and |1i with probability 1/2. What
would be the probability of the measurement outcome being 0?

3. Consider the following game played by two parties Alice and Bob: Alice prepares a single bit
quantum state |ψi and sends it to Bob. Bob tosses a fair coin; if he gets ‘Heads’, he measures
|ψi and sends the measured outcome to Alice. If he gets ‘Tails’, he does nothing, and sends
back |ψi. Alice wants to know whether Bob got ‘Heads’ or ‘Tails’. How can she do it?
Note that Alice can prepare |ψi in any manner; and once she gets back a state from Bob,
she can do further computations on this state. Here is a strategy that does not work: Alice
sends |0i to Bob. Now, note that irrespective of whether Bob measures this state or not, Alice
will get back |0i; similarly, sending |1i is also useless for predicting Bob’s coin toss. Perhaps
a superposition of |0i and |1i will help?

4. [Ryan O’Donnell’s Homework 4] Consider the following quantum circuit operating on 3

qubits:

a0 |0i + a1 |1i H

|0i H

|0i

(a) Determine the state of the three qubits at the end of the circuit’s operation.
(b) Suppose the top two qubits are measured. Determine the probabilities of the possible
outcomes, and what state the third qubit collapses to in each of the four cases.