Classical Software for Quantum Computers

Daniel Herr

Shaukat Ali, Tao Yue

Quantum software testing concentrates on testing quantum programs to discover quantum faults in the programs cost-effectively. Given the foundations in quantum mechanics, the way quantum computations are performed is significantly different than classical computing. Therefore, quantum software testing also differs from classical software testing. There has been quite an interest in building quantum software testing techniques since 2019 in the software engineering (SE) community. Thus, we aim to introduce quantum software testing to the SE community. In particular, we will present the basic foundations of quantum computing and quantum programming as circuits, followed by the current state of the art on quantum software testing. Next, we will present some basic quantum software testing techniques and finally give the research directions that deserve attention from the SE community.

Damian S. Steiger

Mario G. Piattini, José Luis Hevia, Guido Peterssen

Quantum computing is a young discipline that specializes in the construction of hardware and software using the quantum properties of nature, to solve problems of higher complexity that classical computing cannot address, in multiple business areas. The most important computing revolution of the last 60 years has begun because of the integration of classical computing, quantum computing and artificial intelligence. In this paper, we present a pragmatic survey of the main quantum computing areas, focusing in particular on software and the need for real Quantum Software Engineering (QSE) to produce quantum software with sufficient quality and productivity, which is the fundamental axis for the diffusion of quantum computing.

Iaakov Exman

It is widely understood that quantum computing — quantum gates upon qubits — is the general case, encompassing computing by classical means, viz. Boolean logic upon classical bits. It also seems reasonable that Quantum Software should encompass Classical Software. However, to accept such a statement regarding software, the feeling that it seems reasonable is not enough. One needs clear-cut definitions and formal conclusions. This is exactly the purpose of this paper. Previously, we have represented Classical Software by the Laplacian Matrix. More recently, we have shown that Quantum Software is faithfully represented by Density Matrices. It turns out that a Laplacian Matrix normalized by the Laplacian Trace easily obtains a Density Matrix. This opens the horizons for Quantum Software operations — such as unitary and reversible evolution — not naturally available with the classical Laplacian. This paper provides the necessary definitions and conclusions, illustrating the more general Quantum operations with a relevant case study, playing the double role of both classical and quantum software.

Jamie Smith, Michele Mosca