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Towards a quantum programming language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2004

PETER SELINGER
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, Canada Email: selinger@mathstat.uottawa.ca

Abstract

We propose the design of a programming language for quantum computing. Traditionally, quantum algorithms are frequently expressed at the hardware level, for instance in terms of the quantum circuit model or quantum Turing machines. These approaches do not encourage structured programming or abstractions such as data types. In this paper, we describe the syntax and semantics of a simple quantum programming language with high-level features such as loops, recursive procedures, and structured data types. The language is functional in nature, statically typed, free of run-time errors, and has an interesting denotational semantics in terms of complete partial orders of superoperators.

Type
Paper
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

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