F. Gemeinhardt, A. Garmendia, M. Wimmer, R. Wille: A Model-Driven Framework for Composition-Based Quantum Circuit Design, submitted for publication to ACM Transactions on Quantum Computing, December 2022. pdf.
Quantum programming languages support the design of quantum applications. However, to create such programs, one still needs to understand fundamental characteristics of quantum computing and quantum information theory. Furthermore, quantum algorithms frequently make use of abstract operations with a hidden low-level realization (e.g., Quantum Fourier Transform). Thus, turning from elementary quantum operations to a higher-level view on quantum circuit design not only reduces the complexity, but also lowers the entry barriers for non quantum computing experts. To this end, this paper proposes a modeling language and design framework for quantum circuits. This allows the definition of composite operators advocating a higher-level quantum algorithm design, together with automated code generation for the circuit execution. The proposed approach comes with a separation of the quantum operation definitions from the quantum circuit syntax, which allows for an independent design and the use of customized libraries. To demonstrate the benefits of the proposed approach, coined Composition-Based Quantum Circuit Designer, we realized the Quantum Counting algorithm as well as the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm with it. This shows that, compared to an existing state-of-the-art editor, the proposed approach allows for the realization of both quantum algorithms on a high-level with a substantially reduced development effort.