Quantum Katas - Tutorials - SingleQubitGates - Exercise 7 - Preparing an arbitrary state

Question

Exercise 7 "Preparing an arbitrary state" from the Quantum Katas - Tutorials - SingleQubitGates asks to prepare a state $\alpha|0\rangle + e^{i\theta}\beta|1\rangle$, using parameters $\alpha$, $\beta$, and $\theta$.

In brief, $\theta$ is one of known-inputs, why we don't use $\theta$ for the Ry gate directly ? Something like this..

Ry(theta, q);
R1(theta, q); 

But alas, I got error:

Qubit in invalid state. Expecting: Zero 
    Expected:   0 
    Actual: 0.061208719054813704 
Try again!

Any ideas would be highly appreciated!!

Answer 1

The angle to use for Ry gate is not necessarily the same one as the given angle $\theta$ to use for R1 gate. This means that you need to figure out the angle for Ry gate from the parameters $\alpha$ and $\beta$. If you're using $\theta$ for both angles, you'll be preparing a state $\cos \frac{\theta}{2}|0\rangle + e^{i\theta}\sin \frac{\theta}{2}|1\rangle$, not $\alpha|0\rangle + e^{i\theta}\beta|1\rangle$ the task asks for.

I recommend checking out the workbook for that tutorial - it has a very detailed explanation of the steps you need to take to solve this task.