In this chapter we present two fundamental building blocks for quantum algorithms: the quantum Fourier transform, and one of its direct applications known as phase estimation. Both building blocks are used extensively in the rest of this book.
In this chapter, we will study the quantum Fourier transform and its application in different quantum algorithms. Problems such as factoring an integer into prime numbers or period finding are computationally intractable problems for a classical computer because of the exponentially large number of operations involved. Integer factoring and period finding can be efficiently solved using the quantum phase estimation algorithm that is heavily based on the quantum Fourier transform. Alternately, since quantum phase estimation aims to find the eigenvalue corresponding to an eigenvector of a unitary operator, it is backbone of important algorithms in optimization such as the HHL algorithm (named for Hassim, Harrow, and Lloyd), which serves as the matrix inversion routine in quantum computing. We start this chapter by revising our concepts of the Fourier transform and its discrete counterpart, the discrete Fourier transform , and then move on to the exciting domain of the quantum Fourier transform and the quantum phase estimation algorithm. We follow this up with a discussion and implementation of the few quantum Fourier transform–related algorithms such as factoring a number and period finding. At the end of the chapter, we briefly introduce the basics of group theory with an attempt to explain the hidden subgroup problem and how it relates to several of the Fourier transform–based algorithms.
Abstract This chapter introduces and analyses two of the most important quantum algorithmic primitives that are used in myriad applications, namely quantum phase estimation and quantum amplitude estimation (QAE). Quantum phase estimation (in the presentation covered in this chapter) uses the quantum Fourier transform, itself an extremely important quantum subroutine. In its original presentation, QAE combines quantum amplitude amplification (a generalisation of the circuit used in Grover’s algorithm) and quantum phase estimation to estimate the amplitude of a quantum state. However, more recent approaches achieve amplitude estimation without phase estimation, which is potentially practically advantageous. This chapter covers both, as well as some important applications of QAE such as quantum Monte Carlo integration and quantum counting.