QUANTUM PROGRAMMING

Semantics for a Quantum Programming Language

by Operator Algebras
Semantics for a quantum programming language by operator algebras, which are known to give
a formulation for quantum theory that is alternative to the one by Hilbert spaces. We show that
the opposite of the category of W*-algebras and normal completely positive subunital maps is
an elementary quantum flow chart category in the sense of Selinger. As a consequence, it gives
a denotational semantics for Selingers first-order functional quantum programming language.
The use of operator algebras allows us to accommodate infinite structures and to handle
classical and quantum computations in a unified way.

Programming the Quantum Future

The earliest computers, like the ENIAC, were rare and heroically difficult to program. That
difficulty stemmed from the requirement that algorithms be expressed in a "vocabulary"
suited to the particular hardware available, ranging from function tables for the ENIAC to
more conventional arithmetic and movement operations on later machines. Introduction of
symbolic programming languages, exemplified by FORTRAN, solved a major difficulty for
the next generation of computing devices by enabling specification of an algorithm in a
form more suitable for human understanding, then translating this specification to a form
executable by the machine. The "programming language" used for such specification
bridged a semantic gap between the human and the computing device. It provided two
important features: high-level abstractions, taking care of automated bookkeeping, and
modularity, making it easier to reason about sub-parts of programs.

Notes on
deterministic programming of quantum observables and
channels
We study the limitations of deterministic programmability of quantum circuits, e.g., quantum
computer. More precisely, we analyze the programming of quantum observables and channels
via quantum multimeters. We show that the programming vectors for any two different sharp
observables are necessarily orthogonal, whenever post-processing is not allowed. This result
then directly implies that also any two different unitary channels require orthogonal
programming vectors. This approach generalizes the well-known orthogonality result first proven
by Nielsen and Chuang. In addition, we give size bounds for a multimeter to be efficient in
quantum programming. 2015, Springer Science+Business Media New York.

Quantum probabilistic logic programming

We describe a quantum mechanics based logic programming language that supports Horn
clauses, random variables, and covariance matrices to express and solve problems in
probabilistic logic. The Horn clauses of the language wrap random variables, including infinite
valued, to express probability distributions and statistical correlations, a powerful feature to
capture relationship between distributions that are not independent. The expressive power of
the language is based on a mechanism to implement statistical ensembles and to solve the
underlying SAT instances using quantum mechanical machinery. We exploit the fact that
classical random variables have quantum decompositions to build the Horn clauses. We
establish the semantics of the language in a rigorous fashion by considering an existing
probabilistic logic language called PRISM with classical probability measures defined on the
Herbrand base and extending it to the quantum context. In the classical case H-interpretations
form the sample space and probability measures defined on them lead to consistent definition of
probabilities for well formed formulae. In the quantum counterpart, we define probability
amplitudes on Hinterpretations facilitating the model generations and verifications via quantum
mechanical superpositions and entanglements. We cast the well formed formulae of the
language as quantum mechanical observables thus providing an elegant interpretation for their
probabilities. We discuss several examples to combine statistical ensembles and predicates of
first order logic to reason with situations involving uncertainty.

Algebraic effects, linearity,

and quantum programming languages
We develop a new framework of algebraic theories with linear parameters, and use it to analyze
the equational reasoning principles of quantum computing and quantum programming
languages. We use the framework as follows: We present a new elementary algebraic theory of
quantum computation, built from unitary gates and measurement; we provide a completeness
theorem for the elementary algebraic theory by relating it with a model from operator algebra;
we extract an equational theory for a quantum programming language from the algebraic theory;
we compare quantum computation with other local notions of computation by investigating
variations on the algebraic theory. Copyright 2015 by the Association for Computing
Machinery, Inc. (ACM).