The Algebraic lambda-calculus and the Linear-Algebraic lambda-calculus extend the lambda-calculus with the possibility of making arbitrary linear combinations of terms. In this paper we provide a fine-grained, System F-like type system for the linear-algebraic lambda-calculus. We show that this type system enjoys both the subject-reduction property and the strong-normalisation property, our main technical results. The latter yields a significant simplification of the linear-algebraic lambda-calculus itself, by removing the need for some restrictions in its reduction rules. But the more important, original feature of this scalar type system is that it keeps track of 'the amount of a type' that is present in each term. As an example of its use, we shown that it can serve as a guarantee that the normal form of a term is barycentric, i.e that its scalars are summing to one.
We revisit the Vectorial Lambda Calculus, a typed version of Lineal. Vectorial (as well as Lineal) has been originally designed for quantum computing, as an extension to System F where linear combinations of lambda terms are also terms and linear combinations of types are also types. In its first presentation, Vectorial only provides a weakened version of the Subject Reduction property. We prove that our revised Vectorial Lambda Calculus supports the standard version of said property, answering a long standing issue. In addition we also introduce the concept of weight of types and terms, and prove a relation between the weight of terms and of its types.
Abstract We introduce the
L!S-calculus, a linear lambda-calculus extended with scalar multiplication and term addition, that acts as a proof language for intuitionistic linear logic. These algebraic operations enable the direct expression of linearity at the syntactic level, a property not typically available in standard proof-term calculi. Building upon previous work, we develop the
L!S-calculus as an extension of the
LS-calculus with the ! modality. We prove key meta-theoretical properties—subject reduction, confluence, strong normalization and an introduction property—as well as preserve the expressiveness of the original
LS-calculus, including the encoding of vectors and matrices, and the correspondence between proof-terms and linear functions. A denotational semantics is provided in the framework of linear categories with biproducts, ensuring a sound and adequate interpretation of the calculus. This work is part of a broader programme aiming to build a measurement-free quantum programming language grounded in linear logic.
We examine the relationship between the algebraic lambda-calculus, a fragment of the differential lambda-calculus and the linear-algebraic lambda-calculus, a candidate lambda-calculus for quantum computation. Both calculi are algebraic: each one is equipped with an additive and a scalar-multiplicative structure, and their set of terms is closed under linear combinations. However, the two languages were built using different approaches: the former is a call-by-name language whereas the latter is call-by-value; the former considers algebraic equalities whereas the latter approaches them through rewrite rules. In this paper, we analyse how these different approaches relate to one another. To this end, we propose four canonical languages based on each of the possible choices: call-by-name versus call-by-value, algebraic equality versus algebraic rewriting. We show that the various languages simulate one another. Due to subtle interaction between beta-reduction and algebraic rewriting, to make the languages consistent some additional hypotheses such as confluence or normalisation might be required. We carefully devise the required properties for each proof, making them general enough to be valid for any sub-language satisfying the corresponding properties.
We introduce a minimal language combining both higher-order computation and linear algebra. Roughly, this is nothing else than the Lambda-calculus together with the possibility to make linear combinations of terms a.t+b.u. We describe how to "execute" this language in terms of a few rewrite rules, and justify them through the two fundamental requirements that the language be a language of linear operators, and that it be higher-order. We mention the perspectives of this work in field of quantum computation, which we show can be easily encoded in the calculus, as well as in other domains such as the interpretation of linear logic. Finally we prove the confluence of the calculus, this is our main result. Keywords: quantum programming language, quantum control, quantum logic, probabilistic and quantitative analysis, rewriting techniques.
With a view towards models of quantum computation and/or the interpretation of linear logic, we define a functional language where all functions are linear operators by construction. A small step operational semantic (and hence an interpreter/simulator) is provided for this language in the form of a term rewrite system. The linear-algebraic lambda-calculus hereby constructed is linear in a different (yet related) sense to that, say, of the linear lambda-calculus. These various notions of linearity are discussed in the context of quantum programming languages. KEYWORDS: quantum lambda-calculus, linear lambda-calculus,
λ-calculus, quantum logics.
Since the seminal work of Selinger and Valiron, the standard design for quantum lambda calculi has kept the quantum state outside the program: terms manipulate pointers to an external register. This is largely due to the difficulty of eliminating tensor products. For example, the calculus
λρ∘ embeds density matrices directly within terms, where terms carry the entire computation state, a feature particularly appealing for program verification. However, lacking a tensor elimination construct, it can neither access the individual qubits of a compound state nor discard them. Borgna showed that this inability to discard qubits makes the calculus strictly less expressive than the quantum lambda calculus of Selinger and Valiron.
In this paper we show that tensor elimination is possible in this setting. The key observation is that the Pauli decomposition, combined with the spectral decomposition of the Pauli matrices, allows any
n-qubit density matrix to be expressed as a real linear combination of tensor products of single-qubit density matrices. Exploiting this fact, we extend
λρ∘ with a construct
let x⊗n=ρin t, which binds each
xi to a single-qubit density matrix arising from the decomposition of
ρ.
We equip the extended calculus with a rewrite system, a type system, and a denotational semantics, and prove Subject Reduction, Progress, Strong Normalisation, Soundness, and Adequacy. The new construct also recovers the missing ability to discard qubits, thereby restoring expressiveness. Moreover, we show that this is achieved in a physically principled way: a variable unused in
t is interpreted exactly as being partial-traced out, as dictated by the no-deleting theorem. We illustrate the resulting compositionality through quantum teleportation and the three-qubit bit-flip code.