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Let $U$ be a unitary operator and suppose initially that the target is an eigenstate $|u⟩$ with $U|u⟩=e^{2\pi i\varphi }|u⟩$, $0\le \varphi <1$. Use $t$ control qubits, so $L=2^t$. Hadamard gates prepare the uniform superposition $L^{-1/2}{\sum }_{a=0}^{L-1}|a⟩$. For each binary control position $j$, apply the controlled unitary gate $U^{2^j}$. The resulting state isApply the inverse quantum Fourier transform, with convention ${\mathrm{QFT}}_L|j⟩=L^{-1/2}{\sum }_a{e}^{2\pi iaj/L}|a⟩$, and measure the control. The exact amplitude and probability areFor an exactly representable phase $\varphi =j_0/L$, orthogonality of roots of unity makes the outcome $j_0$ certain. Otherwise the finite geometric series givesThe estimate is $j/L$, with phases interpreted modulo one.

To prove an error bound, choose a nearest label $j_0$ to $L\varphi$ on the circular grid and put $d=L\varphi -j_0$ in the interval $[-1/2,1/2]$. For $d\ne 0$, concavity of sine on $[0,\pi /2]$ gives $|\sin \pi d|\ge 2|d|$, while $L|\sin (\pi d/L)|\le \pi |d|$. Therefore the nearest-integer success bound for quantum phase estimation isHere $\Vert x{\Vert }_{\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z}}={\min }_{k\in \mathbb{Z}}|x-k|$. At an exact grid point the probability is one. If two nearest labels tie, either one separately has the displayed lower bound.

For high confidence one can prove a stronger quantum phase estimation tail bound. Let $d_j$ be the centered distance between $j$ and $L\varphi$, chosen with $|d_j|\le L/2$. The denominator estimate $|\sin (\pi d_j/L)|\ge 2|d_j|/L$ implies $p_j\le 1/(4d_j^2)$ away from the exact-phase case. A label at circular integer distance $\ell$ from $j_0$ has $|d_j|\ge \ell -1/2$, and there are at most two labels at each such distance. For $m\ge 2$, summing the tails givesOn the complementary event the circular phase error is at most $(m-1/2)/L$. Thus, for $b$ desired bits of accuracy, take $t=b+u$ with $u\ge 1$ and $m=2^u$ to obtainTaking $u=\lceil {\log }_2(1+1/(2\epsilon ))\rceil$ makes the right side at most $\epsilon$. This adds only $O(\log (1/\epsilon ))$ control qubits. Efficient QFT is not by itself a guarantee of efficient controlled powers of an arbitrary $U$: implementing them by repeated oracle calls uses $L-1$ calls. The modular-arithmetic application has efficient powers, as follows.

Assume $n>1$ and $\gcd (x,n)=1$, and let $r$ be the multiplicative order of $x$ modulo $n$. Define the unitary operator $U_x|y⟩=|xy\mathrm{mod}n⟩$ on $0\le y<n$, and extend it as the identity on unused computational-basis labels of the binary register. Coprimality makes multiplication a permutation, so this extension really is unitary. The orbit of $|1⟩$ consists of the $r$ distinct states $|x^j\mathrm{mod}n⟩$. Its modular multiplication eigenstates areThe last relation follows by shifting the index $j$ cyclically; orthogonality follows from the finite Fourier sum. We do not need to know $r$ to prepare one of these eigenstates: the readily prepared target obeysRunning quantum phase estimation on this state produces the mixture of the $r$ eigenphase distributions, each with weight $1/r$, because the target eigenstates are orthogonal. Thus it samples a uniformly random phase label $s$ and estimates $s/r$ with the bounds just proved. Equivalently the state before the inverse QFT is $L^{-1/2}{\sum }_a|a⟩|x^a\mathrm{mod}n⟩$, which is obtained by quantum modular exponentiation directly.

The controlled power $U_x^{2^j}$ multiplies by $x^{2^j}\mathrm{mod}n$, whose constant is computed by repeated squaring. Under the assumed efficient modular exponentiation, these controlled multiplications and the QFT use a number of gates polynomial in the register lengths. Taking $L>n^2$ requires only $O(\log n)$ phase qubits. The nearest-label event has probability at least $4/{\pi }^2$ and yields an estimate within $1/(2L)<1/(2r^2)$ of $s/r$. Since $r<n$, continued-fraction recovery in quantum order finding then identifies the reduced fraction $s/r$. The denominator is $r/\gcd (s,r)$, not necessarily $r$: when $s$ and $r$ are coprime it is the desired order, and when they are not it is only a divisor. One may test candidate denominators using modular exponentiation and repeat with fresh samples; denominators from successful samples can also be combined by a least common multiple. The probability of a nearest-label sample with $s$ coprime to $r$ is at least $(4/{\pi }^2)\phi (r)/r$. These qualifications explain exactly what the phase estimate yields without falsely assuming that the unknown order or an eigenstate was available at the start.