Perceval: A Software Platform for Discrete Variable Photonic Quantum Computing
Nicolas Heurtel, Andreas Fyrillas, Grégoire de Gliniasty, Raphaël Le Bihan, Sébastien Malherbe, Marceau Pailhas, Eric Bertasi, Boris Bourdoncle, Pierre-Emmanuel Emeriau, Rawad Mezher, Luka Music, Nadia Belabas, Benoît Valiron, P. Senellart, Shane Mansfield, Jean Sénellart
We introduce P e r c e v a l , an open-source software platform for simulating and interfacing with discrete-variable photonic quantum computers, and describe its main features and components. Its Python front-end allows photonic circuits to be composed from basic photonic building blocks like photon sources, beam splitters, phase-shifters and detectors. A variety of computational back-ends are available and optimised for different use-cases. These use state-of-the-art simulation techniques covering both weak simulation, or sampling, and strong simulation. We give examples of P e r c e v a l in action by reproducing a variety of photonic experiments and simulating photonic implementations of a range of quantum algorithms, from Grover's and Shor's to examples of quantum machine learning. P e r c e v a l is intended to be a useful toolkit for experimentalists wishing to easily model, design, simulate, or optimise a discrete-variable photonic experiment, for theoreticians wishing to design algorithms and applications for discrete-variable photonic quantum computing platforms, and for application designers wishing to evaluate algorithms on available state-of-the-art photonic quantum computers.
We introduce P e r c e v a l , an open-source software platform for simulating and interfacing with discrete-variable photonic quantum computers, and describe its main features and components. Its Python front-end allows photonic circuits to be composed from basic photonic building blocks like photon sources, beam splitters, phase-shifters and detectors. A variety of computational back-ends are available and optimised for different use-cases. These use state-of-the-art simulation techniques covering both weak simulation, or sampling, and strong simulation. We give examples of P e r c e v a l in action by reproducing a variety of photonic experiments and simulating photonic implementations of a range of quantum algorithms, from Grover's and Shor's to examples of quantum machine learning. P e r c e v a l is intended to be a useful toolkit for experimentalists wishing to easily model, design, simulate, or optimise a discrete-variable photonic experiment, for theoreticians wishing to design algorithms and applications for discrete-variable photonic quantum computing platforms, and for application designers wishing to evaluate algorithms on available state-of-the-art photonic quantum computers.
We introduce the Piquasso quantum programming framework, a full-stack open-source software platform for the simulation and programming of photonic quantum computers. Piquasso can be programmed via a high-level Python programming interface enabling users to perform efficient quantum computing with discrete and continuous variables. Via optional high-performance C++ backends, Piquasso provides state-of-the-art performance in the simulation of photonic quantum computers. The Piquasso framework is supported by an intuitive web-based graphical user interface where the users can design quantum circuits, run computations, and visualize the results.
Identifying where quantum models may offer practical benefits in near term quantum machine learning (QML) requires moving beyond isolated algorithmic proposals toward systematic and empirical exploration across models, datasets, and hardware constraints. We introduce MerLin, an open-source framework designed as a discovery engine for photonic and hybrid quantum machine learning. MerLin integrates optimized strong simulation of linear optical circuits into standard PyTorch and scikit learn workflows, enabling end-to-end differentiable training of quantum layers.
MerLin is designed around systematic benchmarking and reproducibility. As an initial contribution, we reproduce eighteen state-of-the-art photonic and hybrid QML works spanning kernel methods, reservoir computing, convolutional and recurrent architectures, generative models, and modern training paradigms. These reproductions are released as reusable, modular experiments that can be directly extended and adapted, establishing a shared experimental baseline consistent with empirical benchmarking methodologies widely adopted in modern artificial intelligence.
By embedding photonic quantum models within established machine learning ecosystems, MerLin allows practitioners to leverage existing tooling for ablation studies, cross-modality comparisons, and hybrid classical-quantum workflows. The framework already implements hardware-aware features, allowing tests on available quantum hardware while enabling exploration beyond its current capabilities, positioning MerLin as a forward-looking co-design tool linking algorithms, benchmarks, and hardware.
Open source software is becoming crucial in the design and testing of quantum algorithms. Many of the tools are backed by major commercial vendors with the goal to make it easier to develop quantum software: this mirrors how well-funded open machine learning frameworks enabled the development of complex models and their execution on equally complex hardware. We review a wide range of open source software for quantum computing, covering all stages of the quantum toolchain from quantum hardware interfaces through quantum compilers to implementations of quantum algorithms, as well as all quantum computing paradigms, including quantum annealing, and discrete and continuous-variable gate-model quantum computing. The evaluation of each project covers characteristics such as documentation, licence, the choice of programming language, compliance with norms of software engineering, and the culture of the project. We find that while the diversity of projects is mesmerizing, only a few attract external developers and even many commercially backed frameworks have shortcomings in software engineering. Based on these observations, we highlight the best practices that could foster a more active community around quantum computing software that welcomes newcomers to the field, but also ensures high-quality, well-documented code.
Distributed, large-scale quantum computing will need architectures that combine matter-based qubits with photonic links, but today's software stacks target either gate-based chips or linear-optical devices in isolation. We introduce Optyx, an open-source Python framework offering a unified language to program, simulate, and prototype hybrid, networked systems: users create experiments that mix qubit registers, discrete-variable photonic modes, lossy channels, heralded measurements, and real-time feedback; Optyx compiles them via ZX/ZW calculus into optimised tensor-network forms, and executes with state-of-the-art contraction schedulers based on Quimb and Cotengra. Benchmarking on exact multi-photon circuit simulations shows that, versus permanent-based methods, tensor network contraction can deliver speedups of orders of magnitude for low-depth circuits and entangled photon sources, and natively supports loss and distinguishability -- establishing it as both a high-performance simulator and a rapid-prototyping environment for next-generation photonic-network experiments.
We introduce Strawberry Fields, an open-source quantum programming architecture for light-based quantum computers, and detail its key features. Built in Python, Strawberry Fields is a full-stack library for design, simulation, optimization, and quantum machine learning of continuous-variable circuits. The platform consists of three main components: (i) an API for quantum programming based on an easy-to-use language named Blackbird; (ii) a suite of three virtual quantum computer backends, built in NumPy and TensorFlow, each targeting specialized uses; and (iii) an engine which can compile Blackbird programs on various backends, including the three built-in simulators, and - in the near future - photonic quantum information processors. The library also contains examples of several paradigmatic algorithms, including teleportation, (Gaussian) boson sampling, instantaneous quantum polynomial, Hamiltonian simulation, and variational quantum circuit optimization.
We introduce DeepQuantum, an open-source, PyTorch-based software platform for quantum machine learning and photonic quantum computing. This AI-enhanced framework enables efficient design and execution of hybrid quantum-classical models and variational quantum algorithms on both CPUs and GPUs. For photonic quantum computing, DeepQuantum implements Fock, Gaussian, and Bosonic backends, catering to different simulation needs. To our knowledge, it is the first framework to realize closed-loop integration of three paradigms of quantum computing, namely quantum circuits, photonic quantum circuits, and measurement-based quantum computing, thereby enabling robust support for both specialized and universal photonic quantum algorithm design. Furthermore, DeepQuantum supports large-scale simulations based on tensor network techniques and a distributed parallel computing architecture. We demonstrate these capabilities through comprehensive benchmarks and illustrative examples. With its unique features, DeepQuantum is intended to be a powerful platform for both AI for Quantum and Quantum for AI.