Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/iii/paper-324/3/c/solution

Each summand of acts on one qubit, while each summand of acts on two. Therefore is a 2-local Hamiltonian. We have
Split into steps of length and use the second-order product formula
For one step, in the stated estimate, so the spectral-norm error is . The error bound for a product of unitary operators makes the total error
It is therefore enough to choose
with also large enough that the small-step estimate applies.
All terms commute. A factor uses a constant-size circuit of two controlled-NOT gates and one phase gate, up to a global phase, so one product-formula step costs gates. The complete Hamiltonian simulation consequently has size

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