Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2017 / iii / Paper 324 / 3 / b / i / Solution

Let $V$ denote the coherent exact quantum phase estimation unitary operator from the preceding part, with the data quantum register written first. For every eigenvector of $A$,because $e^{2\pi iA}|u_j⟩=e^{2\pi i{\lambda }_j}|u_j⟩$ and ${\lambda }_j=c_j/2^n$ lies in $[0,1)$, with no phase-aliasing ambiguity. Apply $V$ coherently to the input quantum state and a clean quantum register; do not measure the eigenvalue label. By linearity it produces ${\sum }_j{\beta }_j|u_j⟩|c_j⟩$.

Append a quantum ancilla in $|0⟩$, and use the provided quantum variable rotation with ${\theta }_{c_j}=\arcsin {\lambda }_j$, choosing the nonnegative cosine. The resulting normalized quantum state isThe sum covers both terms; this fixes the potentially ambiguous sum placement in the abbreviated display. The orthonormal basis of eigenvectors and the unit length of each rotated quantum ancilla show that its norm is one. This is quantum spectral filtering by multiplication, not the reciprocal rotation used in the HHL algorithm.