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arXiv:2501.09667

Unitary Expressions: A Necessary Abstraction for Extensible Quantum Programming Languages and Systems

Ed Younis

Published Jan 16, 2025• 0 citations

Abstract

Quantum gates are the fundamental instructions of digital quantum computers. Current programming languages, systems, and software development toolkits identify these operational gates by their titles, which requires a shared understanding of their meanings. However, in the continuously developing software ecosystem surrounding quantum computing -- spanning high-level programming systems to low-level control stacks -- this identification process is often error-prone, challenging to debug, maintenance-heavy, and resistant to change. In this paper, we propose replacing this nominal gate representation with a functional one. We introduce the OpenQudit system for describing, parsing, optimizing, analyzing, and utilizing programs comprising gates described as symbolic unitary expressions. As part of this effort, we design the Qudit Gate Language (QGL), a unitary-specific expression language, and implement a differentiating just-in-time compiler in OpenQudit towards embedding this language in quantum programming languages and systems. Additionally, we have precisely designed and implemented the Qudit Virtual Machine (QVM) to evaluate quantum programs and their gradients efficiently. This evaluation is performed millions of times during the compilation of quantum programs. Our QVM can compute gradients approximately ten times faster than current leading numerical quantum compilation frameworks in the most common use cases. Altogether, the OpenQudit system is envisioned to (1) support many-level or qudit-based quantum systems, (2) enable the safe composition of program transformation tools, (3) accelerate circuit optimizers and transpilers, (4) enable compiler extensibility, and (5) provide a productive, simple-to-use interface to quantum practitioners.

DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2501.09667

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Quantum gates are the fundamental instructions of digital quantum computers. Current programming languages, systems, and software development toolkits identify these operational gates by their titles, which requires a shared understanding of their meanings. However, in the continuously developing software ecosystem surrounding quantum computing -- spanning high-level programming systems to low-level control stacks -- this identification process is often error-prone, challenging to debug, maintenance-heavy, and resistant to change. In this paper, we propose replacing this nominal gate representation with a functional one. We introduce the OpenQudit system for describing, parsing, optimizing, analyzing, and utilizing programs comprising gates described as symbolic unitary expressions. As part of this effort, we design the Qudit Gate Language (QGL), a unitary-specific expression language, and implement a differentiating just-in-time compiler in OpenQudit towards embedding this language in quantum programming languages and systems. Additionally, we have precisely designed and implemented the Qudit Virtual Machine (QVM) to evaluate quantum programs and their gradients efficiently. This evaluation is performed millions of times during the compilation of quantum programs. Our QVM can compute gradients approximately ten times faster than current leading numerical quantum compilation frameworks in the most common use cases. Altogether, the OpenQudit system is envisioned to (1) support many-level or qudit-based quantum systems, (2) enable the safe composition of program transformation tools, (3) accelerate circuit optimizers and transpilers, (4) enable compiler extensibility, and (5) provide a productive, simple-to-use interface to quantum practitioners.

High-performance numerical quantum compilers rely on classical optimization, but are limited by slow numerical evaluations and a design that makes extending them with new instructions a difficult, error-prone task for domain experts. This paper introduces OpenQudit, a compilation framework that solves these problems by allowing users to define quantum operations symbolically in the Qudit Gate Language (QGL), a mathematically natural DSL. OpenQudit's ahead-of-time compiler uses a tensor network representation and an e-graph-based pass for symbolic simplification before a runtime tensor network virtual machine (TNVM) JIT-compiles the expressions into high-performance native code. The evaluation shows that this symbolic approach is highly effective, accelerating the core instantiation task by up to

\mathtt{\sim}20\times

on common quantum circuit synthesis problems compared to state-of-the-art tools.

Quantum computing hardware is advancing at a rapid pace, yet the lack of high-level programming abstractions remains a serious bottleneck in the development of new applications. Widely used frameworks still rely on gate-level circuit descriptions, causing the algorithm's functional intent to become lost in low-level implementation details, and hindering flexibility and reuse. While various high-level quantum programming languages have emerged in recent years - offering a significant step toward higher abstraction - many still lack support for classical-like expression syntax, and native constructs for useful quantum algorithmic idioms. This paper presents Qmod, a high-level quantum programming language designed to capture algorithmic intent in natural terms while delegating implementation decisions to automation. Qmod introduces quantum numeric variables and expressions, including digital fixed-point arithmetic tuned for compact representations and optimal resource usage. Beyond digital encoding, Qmod also supports non-digital expression modes - phase and amplitude encoding - frequently exploited by quantum algorithms to achieve computational advantages. We describe the language's constructs, demonstrate practical usage examples, and outline future work on evaluating Qmod across a broader set of use cases.

Quantum computing hardware is advancing at a rapid pace, yet the lack of high-level programming abstractions remains a serious bottleneck in the development of new applications. Widely used frameworks still rely on gate-level circuit descriptions, causing the algorithm's functional intent to become lost in low-level implementation details, and hindering flexibility and reuse. While various high-level quantum programming languages have emerged in recent years - offering a significant step toward higher abstraction - many still lack support for classicallike expression syntax, and native constructs for useful quantum algorithmic idioms. This paper presents Qmod, a high-level quantum programming language designed to capture algorithmic intent in natural terms while delegating implementation decisions to automation. Qmod introduces quantum numeric variables and expressions, including digital fixed-point arithmetic tuned for compact representations and optimal resource usage. Beyond digital encoding, Qmod also supports nondigital expression modes phase and amplitude encoding - frequently exploited by quantum algorithms to achieve computational advantages. We describe the language's constructs, demonstrate practical usage examples, and outline future work on evaluating Qmod across a broader set of use cases.

Quantum programs today are written at a low level of abstraction—quantum circuits akin to assembly languages—and the unitary parts of even advanced quantum programming languages essentially function as circuit description languages. This state of affairs impedes scalability, clarity, and support for higher-level reasoning. More abstract and expressive quantum programming constructs are needed. To this end, we introduce a simple syntax for generating unitaries from “just a phase”; we combine a (global) phase operation that captures phase shifts with a quantum analogue of the “if let” construct that captures subspace selection via pattern matching. This minimal language lifts the focus from gates to eigendecomposition, conjugation, and controlled unitaries; common building blocks in quantum algorithm design. We demonstrate several aspects of the expressive power of our language in several ways. Firstly, we establish that our representation is universal by deriving a universal quantum gate set. Secondly, we show that important quantum algorithms can be expressed naturally and concisely, including Grover’s search algorithm, Hamiltonian simulation, Quantum Fourier Transform, Quantum Signal Processing, and the Quantum Eigenvalue Transformation. Furthermore, we give clean denotational semantics grounded in categorical quantum mechanics. Finally, we implement a prototype compiler that efficiently translates terms of our language to quantum circuits, and prove that it is sound with respect to these semantics. Collectively, these contributions show that this construct offers a principled and practical step toward more abstract and structured quantum programming.

At this point, we understand the principles of quantum computing, the important foundational algorithms, and the basics of quantum error correction. We have developed a compact infrastructure for exploration and experimentation, but it is at the gate level. Higher levels of abstraction are needed to scale to much larger programs. The chapter discusses several quantum programming languages, including their specific tooling, such as hierarchical program representations or entanglement analysis. General challenges for compilation are discussed, as well as compiler optimization techniques. The chapter finishes with transpilation, a powerful compilation-based technique. It allows seamless porting of circuits to other frameworks, enabling the use of their advanced error models or distributed simulation capabilities. The underlying (simple) compiler technology would further enable implementation of several of the features found in programming languages, such as automatic uncomputation, entanglement analysis, and conditional blocks.

Abstract Quantum computers promise to transform our notions of computation by offering a completely new paradigm. To achieve scalable quantum computation, optimizing compilers and a corresponding software design flow will be essential. We present a software architecture for compiling quantum programs from a high-level language program to hardware-specific instructions. We describe the necessary layers of abstraction and their differences and similarities to classical layers of a computer-aided design flow. For each layer of the stack, we discuss the underlying methods for compilation and optimization. Our software methodology facilitates more rapid innovation among quantum algorithm designers, quantum hardware engineers, and experimentalists. It enables scalable compilation of complex quantum algorithms and can be targeted to any specific quantum hardware implementation.