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Quantum programming

Book Contribution - Chapter

The goal of this text is to advertise the need and support the development of quantum programming paradigms. By this we mean that we are essentially interested in an exploration of the expressiveness of quantum computations. We advocate that the history and evolution of classical programming paradigms is an essential learning ground and source of inspiration in establishing quantum programming paradigms. To clarify this we start with a historical explanation of the early development classical programming paradigms. Next we argue that quantum programming currently occurs at best at the level of assembly language. In particular we reason that the measurement calculus is the only suitable candidate for assembly-level quantum computations, giving an overview of its syntax, features and applications. We also provide a short overview of related work in quantum programming languages, which should further convince the reader of the uniqueness of the measurement calculus as a formal model. Since there is much activity in the area of distributed quantum computations we also explain where we are at in paradigm development for this type of computations. In particular we put forward as associated assembly language the distributed measurement calculus, again giving an overview of its syntax, features, applications and related work. We conclude with some ideas on how to move to higher-level quantum programming languages, in particular by focusing on correlations as the main driving force behind computations in arbitrary computing environments. This article is not technical, nor it is intended to be. The aim, rather, is to provide the reader with a general feel for the subject and to support our claims by example, while at the same time giving references to more specialised articles for the interested reader.
Book: Worldviews, Science and Us: Bridging Knowledge and Its Implications for our Perspectives of the World
Series: Worldviews, Science and Us
Pages: 229-265
Number of pages: 37
ISBN:978-981-4383-07-3
Publication year:2010
Keywords:quantum computation, programming paradigms
  • VABB Id: c:vabb:302843