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The Computer Journal

Quantum Programming Languages: An Introductory Overview

Roland Rüdiger

Published Oct 12, 2006• 28 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The present article gives an introductory overview of the novel field of quantum programming languages (QPLs) from a pragmatic perspective. First, after a short summary of basic notations of quantum mechanics, some of the goals and design issues are surveyed, which motivate the research in this area. Then, several of the approaches are described in more detail. The article concludes with a brief survey of current research activities and a tabular summary of a selection of QPLs, which have been published so far.

DOI
10.1093/comjnl/bxl057

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The present article gives an introductory overview of the novel field of quantum programming languages (QPLs) from a pragmatic perspective. First, after a short summary of basic notations of quantum mechanics, some of the goals and design issues are surveyed, which motivate the research in this area. Then, several of the approaches are described in more detail. The article concludes with a brief survey of current research activities and a tabular summary of a selection of QPLs, which have been published so far.
The field of quantum programming languages is developing rapidly and there is a surprisingly large literature. Research in this area includes the design of programming languages for quantum computing, the application of established semantic and logical techniques to the foundations of quantum mechanics, and the design of compilers for quantum programming languages. This article justifies the study of quantum programming languages, presents the basics of quantum computing, surveys the literature in quantum programming languages, and indicates directions for future research.
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Quantum computer programming is emerging as a new subject domain from multidisciplinary research in quantum computing, computer science, mathematics (especially quantum logic, lambda calculi, and linear logic), and engineering attempts to build the first non-trivial quantum computer. This paper briefly surveys the history, methods, and proposed tools for programming quantum computers circa late 2007. It is intended to provide an extensive but non-exhaustive look at work leading up to the current state-of-the-art in quantum computer programming. Further, it is an attempt to analyze the needed programming tools for quantum programmers, to use this analysis to predict the direction in which the field is moving, and to make recommendations for further development of quantum programming language tools.
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