A Logic for Formal Verification of Quantum Programs

Tsubasa Takagi, Canh Minh Do, Kazuhiro Ogata

Robert W. Rand

We survey the landscape of Hoare logics for quantum programs. We review three papers: "Reasoning about imperative quantum programs" by Chadha, Mateus and Sernadas; "A logic for formal verification of quantum programs" by Yoshihiko Kakutani; and "Floyd-hoare logic for quantum programs" by Mingsheng Ying. We compare the mathematical foundations of the logics, their underlying languages, and the expressivity of their assertions. We also use the languages to verify the Deutsch-Jozsa Algorithm, and discuss their relative usability in practice.

Yuanjie, Ren, Zhicheng Zhang +4 more

Practical quantum programs interleave quantum and classical computation: classical data shape the quantum operations that are performed, and measurement outcomes shape the classical computation that follows. Formal verification of such programs in a proof assistant requires mechanizing a program logic that handles this interplay consistently at every level, from the mathematics of quantum mechanics, through program syntax and semantics, to specifications and proof rules. Such mechanizations, along with the program proofs built on them, typically require substantial manual effort. We present QEDIA, a framework for verifying quantum programs with classical variables in Lean 4. At its foundation is an open library that formalizes the quantum Hoare logic QHL+ across all these levels and proves the logic sound for both partial and total correctness. We construct the library and the program proofs, under human supervision, using an LLM-based prover agent, whose general-purpose core we extend for quantum program verification. We illustrate QEDIA with verified programs including the quantum Fourier transform, phase estimation, repeat-until-success circuits, and Hamiltonian simulation.

Mingsheng Ying, Nengkun Yu, Yuan Feng +1 more

Qifan Huang, Li Zhou, Wang Sheng Fang +2 more

Quantum error correction (QEC) is fundamental for suppressing noise in quantum hardware and enabling fault-tolerant quantum computation. In this paper, we propose an efficient verification framework for QEC programs. We define an assertion logic and a program logic specifically crafted for QEC programs and establish a sound proof system. We then develop an efficient method for handling verification conditions (VCs) of QEC programs: for Pauli errors, the VCs are reduced to classical assertions that can be solved by SMT solvers, and for non-Pauli errors, we provide a heuristic algorithm. We formalize the proposed program logic in Coq proof assistant, making it a verified QEC verifier. Additionally, we implement an automated QEC verifier, Veri-QEC, for verifying various fault-tolerant scenarios. We demonstrate the efficiency and broad functionality of the framework by performing different verification tasks across various scenarios. Finally, we present a benchmark of 14 verified stabilizer codes.

Mingsheng Ying