Use the quantum Fourier transform convention , where . Reindexing the shifted sum gives
Thus the cyclic shift operator has these eigenvectors, with eigenvalues . This is cyclic shift diagonalization by the quantum Fourier transform, and it implies with .
For , the binary encoding is , with the more significant qubit. The required diagonal phase is
so . The allowed-gate circuit is therefore
In execution order, apply the inverse QFT, then the two phase gates, then the forward QFT. There is no extra global phase. Reversing the Fourier sign convention would conjugate both phase gate parameters.
The binary phase is . Therefore
On the phase register, apply the tensor product of phase gates
Its action on is multiplication by . Thus the positive-phase fractional power of a unitary operator is implemented by uncomputation after coherent phase estimation:
Hence
The inverse phase-estimation circuit uses controlled powers of built from the supplied inverse oracle, with all other quantum gates reversed. No phase-register measurement is made, so arbitrary superpositions are preserved and the ancilla qubits return to zero. The straightforward implementation uses controlled-unitary queries plus the Fourier and phase circuitry; the arbitrary phase gates are accepted exactly as stipulated.
The branch convention matters. This construction uses the phase representative specified here, corresponding to argument in . It implements that explicitly defined root, even for . The usual complex principal branch with argument in would choose a different root on some eigenvalues. No substitution of that alternative branch is implicit.
Let the known phase gate on the answer register be
where the comparison uses ordinary integers, not modular arithmetic. A reversible circuit computes the predicate, applies a Pauli Z gate to its flag, then performs uncomputation.
The compute-phase-uncompute construction now gives
Use modular-oracle inversion by negation to realize the last operation with one further query. Exactly two oracle queries implement , returning the answer register and comparison workspace to their initial states.
The operators act on different qubits and therefore commute, so
Since ,
The scalar is a global phase. Thus each factor uses two Hadamard gates and one phase gate, and applying the factors in parallel or sequentially gives an exact quantum circuit of elementary gates.
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
First construct a controlled unitary gate from the uncontrolled oracle. Keep the supplied in a reference register. Controlled on an extra qubit, swap the data and reference registers, query on the register that contains in one branch, and swap back. Because , that branch is unchanged, while the other branch acquires on the data. Reversing the control convention with Pauli X gates gives controlled-. The reference state is returned unchanged, and each use costs one query to and controlled-SWAP gates.
Expand in an eigenbasis of . Exact quantum phase estimation with an -qubit phase register produces
Apply the available phase gates, controlled by the corresponding bits of , to multiply branch by
Then reverse phase estimation. Although no oracle was supplied, every eigenvalue obeys , so . The inverse controlled powers can therefore be implemented with forward calls to . Since , phase estimation and its inverse use only queries. The phase register returns to , while the data register is
As a direct check, the same spectral promise implies .
Write . Applying the phase gate
to qubit contributes . The product of these gates is therefore
Similarly, for and , apply a controlled phase gate
between every pair . The accumulated phase is
The controlled phase gates implement
A Hamiltonian operator has perfect transfer between basis states at time if for a known global phase . In an excitation-conserving qubit network whose vacuum is fixed, the initial product state with at site and zeros elsewhere evolves to . A local phase gate at removing restores the unknown qubit there. This explains why transfer of the single-excitation basis state suffices for qubit transfer when the vacuum phase is also accounted for.
Positive-phase fractional power of a unitary operator Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-07
Choose eigenphase representatives for a unitary operator and a positive integer . Its positive-phase fractional power acts on each eigenstate by . This branch uses arguments in and can differ from the usual complex principal branch using . For exactly dyadic phases, exact quantum phase estimation stores each label in a coherent phase register; bitwise phase gates multiply it by the required phase, and inverse phase estimation removes the labels. Keeping the phase register unmeasured preserves arbitrary eigenstate superpositions and resets the ancilla qubits. With only controlled- and controlled- primitives, the direct method uses oracle calls for exact phase bits.
Prepare a qubit in , apply a phase gate , and correlate its computational basis states with normalized environment states . Write . After a final Hadamard gate, the environment amplitude accompanying output zero is . Its squared norm is . Thus is the interference visibility, while shifts the fringe. This quantum decoherence map commutes with the phase gate, so placing it immediately before that gate gives the same probabilities.