An improved query for the hidden subbroup problem

Abstract

The Hidden Subgroup Problem (HSP) is at the forefront of problems in quantum algorithms. In this paper, we introduce a new query, the \textit{character} query, generalizing the well-known phase kickback trick that was first used successfully to efficiently solve Deutsch's problem. An equal superposition query with $\vert 0 \rangle$ in the response register is typically used in the ``standard method" of single-query algorithms for the HSP. The proposed character query improves over this query by maximizing the success probability of subgroup identification under a uniform prior, for the HSP in which the oracle functions take values in a finite abelian group. We apply our results to the case when the subgroups are drawn from a set of conjugate subgroups and obtain a success probability greater than that found by Moore and Russell.