From the course: Quantum Computing Fundamentals

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Pauli-Z gate

Pauli-Z gate

From the course: Quantum Computing Fundamentals

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Pauli-Z gate

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- We've seen the Pauli-X and Pauli-Y gates. Which leaves us to talk about the third and final Pauli-Z gate. And as you can probably guess by now, the Pauli-Z gate corresponds to a rotation of Pi radians or 180 degrees around the Z axis of the block sphere. And you'll see it represented in our quantum circuit diagrams as a box with a letter Z in the middle. To apply the Pauli-Z operator to this qubit which is currently in the one basis state, I'll put a finger on each side of the Z axis and then rotate 180 degrees. - That didn't do anything. Your qubit is still one. - True, we started with one and ended with one. However, notice that now our label is upside down. - I see, so something happened when you applied the Pauli-Z gate, but one and upside down one are the exact same point on the block sphere. There's nothing to distinguish those two quantum states, they're really just the same thing. Let's try another example,…

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