Quantum Programming in QCL

Bernhard Omer
20th January 2000

Institute of Information Systems

Technical University of Vienna

E-mail: [email protected]
Homepage: http://tph.tuwien.ac.at/~oemer
Contents

1 Quantum Physics in a Nutshell 4

1.1 A Brief History of Quantum Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.1 Particles and Waves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.2 Planks Constant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1.3 Bohrs Atom Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.1.4 Wave-Particle Dualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 Wave Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.1 Classical States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.2 The Wave Function . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2.3 The Schrodinger Equation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 Algebraic Quantum Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.1 The Hilbert Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3.2 Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.3.3 Composed systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2 Quantum Computers 22
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.1.1 The Church-Turing Thesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.1.2 Computing Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1.3 Computation as a Physical Process . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.2 Components of a Quantum Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.1 Quantum Memory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.2.2 Processing Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
2.2.3 Input and Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.3 Models of Quantum Computation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3.1 The Mathematical Model of QC . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.3.2 Quantum Turing Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.3.3 Quantum Circuits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.3.4 Quantum Programming Languages . . . . . . . . . . . 38

1
CONTENTS 2

3 Quantum Programming 41
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.1.1 Computers and Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.1.2 Complexity Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.1.3 Hybrid Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.2 QCL as a Classical Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.2.1 Structure of a QCL Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.2 Data Types and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.2.3 Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.2.4 Simple Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.2.5 Flow Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.2.6 Classical Subroutines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.3 Quantum States and Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3.1 Quantum Memory Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.3.2 Quantum Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.3.3 Quantum Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.4 Quantum Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.4.1 Non-unitary Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.4.2 Subroutines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.4.3 General Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.4.4 Unitary Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.4.5 Pseudo-classic Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.4.6 Quantum Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.4.7 Pseudo-classic Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.5 Programming Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.5.1 Design of Quantum Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.5.2 Dealing with Reversibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

4 Quantum Algorithms 76
4.1 Grovers Database Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.1.1 Formulating a Query . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
4.1.2 The Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.1.3 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2 Shors Algorithm for Quantum Factorization . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.2.1 Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.2.2 The Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.2.3 Quantum Fourier Transform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.2.4 Modular Arithmetic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.2.5 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
CONTENTS 3

A QCL Syntax 96
A.1 Expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
A.2 Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
A.3 Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

B The Shor Algorithm in QCL 99

B.1 default.qcl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
B.2 functions.qcl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
B.3 qufunct.qcl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
B.4 dft.qcl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
B.5 modarith.qcl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
B.6 shor.qcl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Chapter 1

Quantum Physics in a Nutshell

While it is possible, to introduce quantum computation in a strictly algebraic

manner without ever mentioning real world things like electrons, parti-
cle states or charge densities1 , some basic knowledge about general quantum
physics can vastly improve the understanding of why certain quantum algo-
rithms or programming techniques actually work and are a good precaution
against common misconceptions.

1.1 A Brief History of Quantum Physics

1.1.1 Particles and Waves
An important problem in physics before the adoption of the quantum theory,
has been the distinction between particle and wave phenomena.
At first glance, both concepts have very little in common: Nobody would
treat a flying bullet as a wave packet or the propagation of sound as a particle
stream, but when particles and wave-lengths get smaller, things arent so
clear:
In the 17th century, Newton used both theories to cover the different
aspects of light [23], explaining its periodicy and interference as wave, and
its linear propagation as particle phenomenon. Later, the wave-theory of
light has been generally accepted, as scientists like Young and Fresnel could
explain most particulate behavior within the realm of the wave-formalism.
Except, that is, for one fundamental requirement: The obvious lack of a
physical medium which lead to the somewhat far-fetched and unsatisfying
Ether hypothesis.
1
which should still be at a safe distance from most peoples notion of real

4
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 5

On the particle front, Daltons Law of Multiple Proportions suggested,

that chemical substances consist of atoms of different masses. In the 19th
century, Boltzmann developed his gas-theory based on atomistic concepts
and experiments with cathode rays showed that the electric charges always
come in multiples of the elementary charge e which is about 1.6 1019
Coulomb.

1.1.2 Planks Constant

In the year 1900, Max Plank explained the energy spectrum of black body
radiation with the ad-hoc assumption, that the possible energy states are
restricted to E = nh, where n is an integer, the frequency and h the
Plank constant, the fundamental constant of quantum physics, with a value
of

h = 2h = 6.626075 1034 Js

In 1888, Hertz demonstrated, that a negatively charged plate would dis-

charge, if exposed to ultraviolet light. Lenard later discovered the kinetic
energy of the electrons is independent of the lights intensity but correlated
to its frequency, such that

eU = C P

with some material dependent constant P . In 1905 Einstein reformulated

this relation to

E = e(U + P ) = h = h

interpreting E as the energy of a light particle, later called a photon.

1.1.3 Bohrs Atom Model

By analyzing the visible spectrum of Hydrogen, it was found that the light
intensity shows very distinct peaks at certain wavelengths. In 1885, Balmer
showed that the wavelength l is very accurately given by

a2
l = 364.56 nm (1.1)
a2 4
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 6

This can be generalized to the Rydberg equation, which also accounts for the
non-visible parts of the spectrum

1 1 1
= RH 2
2 (1.2)
l k a
This suggests, that the electron in the Hydrogen atom is confined to certain
energy levels, which is in contradiction with classical mechanics.
The Bohr-Sommerfeld model accounted for this by introducing a quantum
condition: While the electrons are still assumed to circulate the nucleus on
their classical orbits, their angular momentum has to be a multiple of h. This
restriction could be justified by attributing wave properties to the electron
and demanding that their corresponding wave functions form a standing
wave; however this kind of hybrid theory remained unsatisfactory.
A complete solution for the problem came in 1923 from Heisenberg who
used a matrices-based formalism. In 1925, Schrodinger published an alter-
native solution using complex wave functions. It took two years until Dirac
showed that both formalisms were in fact equivalent.

1.1.4 Wave-Particle Dualism

In 1924, de Broglie assumed that in analogy to photons every particle of
energy E and momentum p~ can in fact be treated as a wave, whose frequency
and wave-vector ~k are given by
E p~
= and ~k = (1.3)
h h
This relation was verified in 1927 in diffraction experiments with electrons
by Davison and Germer. The inverse effect particle behavior of photons
has been demonstrated 1933 in electron-photon dispersion experiments by
Compton.

1.2 Wave Mechanics

1.2.1 Classical States
In classical physics, the momentary state of a particle is given by its location
~r and its velocity ~v .
When we talk about the temporal behavior of dynamic systems, how-
ever, this notion of state is somewhat cumbersome to deal with, since by
definition, the momentary state of the system changes constantly. This is
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 7

especially true when it comes to periodic movement, so it is often more ade-

quate to talk about the current orbit of a satellite (which remains constant
until it is actively altered by outside intervention) than to give the actual
coordinates (which permanently change).
So in a more abstract definition, the states of an isolated classical system
are the positions ~r1 , ~r2 , . . . of all included particles as a function of time t.2

1.2.1.1 State Changes

The above definition implies that the state of a system can only change when
an interaction with another system occurs.
Typically, the duration of the interaction (e.g. the collision of 2 billiard-
balls) is very small compared to the duration of the isolated states, so for
practical purposes the interaction can often be assumed as instantaneous.

1.2.1.2 Conservation Laws

Isolated systems preserve their total energy E and momentum3 p~, which are
given as4 X X
E = V (~r1 , ~r2 , . . .) + mi vi2 and p~ = mi~vi (1.4)
i i
Thus, states can be characterized by these quantities and often the total
energy of a state is much more interesting than the state itself.

1.2.1.3 Movement Laws

Legal physical states must obey a movement law which characterizes the
dynamics of a system. For classic one-particle systems, the dynamic equation
is known as Newtons Third Law
2~r
m = F~ (~r, t) (1.5)
t2
For conservative fields such as non relativistic gravitational and static electric
fields, the force F~ is the negative gradient of a scalar potential V (~r), thus
the equation above can be written as
2~r
m = grad V (~r) (1.6)
t2
2
Note, that since ~v = ~r = ~r/t, this also includes the velocities.
3
There are several other conservation laws for angular momentum, electric charge,
baryon count, etc. which are not mentioned here
4
The form of the potential energy V actually defines the physical problem and can also
depend on particle velocities, time, spins, etc.
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 8

Any momentary state of the system can be used as an initial value for the
above equation to determine its temporal behavior.

1.2.2 The Wave Function

In quantum physics, the state of a one-particle system is characterized by a
complex distribution function (~r, t) with the normalization
Z
|(~r, t)|2 d3~r = 1 (1.7)

Two states differing by a constant phase factor ei are considered equiv-

alent.

1.2.2.1 Particle Location

The classical notion of particle location is replaced by a spatial probability
distribution = , which can be characterized by its expectation value
h~ri and its uncertainty r, which are defined as
Z q
h~ri = (~r, t)~r(~r, t) d3~r and r = hr2 i h~ri2 (1.8)

1.2.2.2 Time Dependency

When a classical system involves moving particles, the location of the parti-
cles is time dependent. This is not necessarily the case with quantum systems
and the describing probability distribution : If the quantum state is of
the form (~r, t) = (~r)(t) with |(t)| = 1, then = (~r)(~r) is time
independent.
Figure 1.1 shows a particle that is trapped between two reflecting mir-
rors.5 A classical particle will move periodically from on end to another at a
constant speed, its location can be described by a periodic triangle-function
of the time. An undisturbed quantum particle in a similar trap, however,
doesnt have a defined location; the probability to meet (i.e. measure)
the particle at a certain location remains constant over time6 but changes
throughout space, or in more physical terms, the particle forms a standing
wave just as a vibrating piano-string between 2 fixed ends.
5
Mathematically, such ideal mirrors are described by infinitely deep potential-wells.
6
This is only the case with eigenstates; in mixed states, the local probability can
oscillate due to the different periods of the involved phase functions i (t)
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 9

Figure 1.1: A ball trapped between two mirrors as classical and as quantum
particle

A constant probability distribution is typical for bound states of defined

energy, i.e. for particles trapped in a constant potential well, e.g. an electron
in the electric field of a proton.

1.2.2.3 Expectation Values

It has been shown above how the classical concept of a well defined particle
location has been replaced by the quantum concept of a statistical expecta-
tion value. This correspondence, however, is not just restricted to space. In
fact, all classical physical quantities of a system can be described as the ex-
pectation value of an appropriate operator (see table 1.1 for some examples).

Observable classical value Operator

Location ~r ~
R = ~r, Ri = ri
Momentum p~ = m t~
r ~
P = ih, Pi = ih r i
Angular Momentum ~ = p~ ~r
L ~=R
L ~ P~ , Li = ihijk rj
rk
p2 h2
Energy E = 2m + V (~r) H = 2m +V

Table 1.1: Some observables and their corresponding operators

In analogy to equation 1.2.2.1, the expectation value hOi and the uncer-
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 10

tainty for an observable O are defined as

Z q
hOi = (~r, t) O (~r, t) d3~r and O = hO2 i hOi2 (1.9)

1.2.3 The Schrodinger Equation

The quantum analogy to Newtons Third Law (see equation 1.6) is the
Schrodinger Equation

H = ih (1.10)
t
which determines the dynamics of a particle system. The Hamilton operator
H describes the total energy of the system at a given time and can be very
complicated.

1.2.3.1 The Time-Independent Schrodinger Equation

If we take the simple case of a particle in a static potential field V , equa-
tion 1.10 can be written as
!
h2 2
+ V (~r) (~r, t) = ih (~r, t) (1.11)
2m t

If we split off the time dependent part, using the ansatz (~r, t) = (~r)(t)
from 1.2.2.2 and the separation parameter E, we get

E (t) = ih (t) and H (~r) = E (~r) (1.12)
t
The time part is solved by = eit with = E/h. E is the energy of the
state, since
Z Z
3
hHi = (~r) (H (~r)) d ~r = E (~r) (~r) d3~r = E (1.13)

The remaining eigenvalue problem E = H is also called the time-

independent Schrodinger Equation.7

1.2.3.2 Energy Spectra

Depending on the imposed boundary conditions, the Schrodinger Equation
is often only solvable for particular values of E, i.e. it has a discrete energy
7
Note that this requires the Hamilton operator to be time-independent, which is not
necessarily the case
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 11

spectrum and the possible eigenvalues En (also called energy terms) can be
enumerated. The solution for the lowest eigenvalue E0 is called the ground-
state 0 of the system.
Since for most physical applications, only the value of the energy terms is
of importance, it is hardly ever necessary to actually compute the eigenstates.
It has been the discovery of discrete energy states, which gave quantum
physics its name, as any state change from eigenstate n to m involves the
exchange of an energy quantum E = Em En .

1.2.3.3 Electron in a Capacitor

As an example, lets consider an electron in a capacitor. To keep things sim-
ple, the capacitor should be modeled by an infinitely deep, one-dimensional
potential well (see also 1.2.2.2), thus
(
0 if 0 < x < l
V (~r) = V (x) = (1.14)
otherwise
This leads us the the time-independent Schrodinger Equation
h2 00
(x) = E (x) (1.15)
2me
and the boundary conditions
(0) = 0 and (l) = 0 (1.16)
The ansatz
(x) = N sin(kx) automatically satisfies the first BC and leads
to k = 2me E/h. To satisfy the second BC, we have to introduce the
quantization-condition
R
kl = n. The normalization constant N has to be
chosen such that |(x)|2 dx = 1, thus the final result is
s
2
n (x) = sin(kn x) with kn = n (1.17)
l l
and the corresponding energies
h2 kn2 2 h2 2
En = = n, n = 1, 2, . . . (1.18)
2me 2me l2
The general time dependent solution is

X
X
(x, t) = cn n (x, t) with |cn |2 = 1 and (1.19)
n=1 n=1
s
2 in t En
n (x, t) = e sin(kn x), kn = n, n = (1.20)
l l h
Figure 1.2 shows the first 3 eigenstates 1 , 2 and 3 and their corre-
sponding spatial probability distributions n = |n |2 .
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 12

1 (x) 1 (x)

2 (x) 2 (x)

3 (x) 3 (x)

Figure 1.2: The first three eigenstates for an electron in a potential well
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 13

1.2.3.4 3-dimensional Trap

The above example can easily be extended to 3 dimensions, using the poten-
tial

x (
0 if 0 < x < l and 0 < y < l and 0 < z < l
V (~r) = V y =
otherwise
z
(1.21)
This leads to the eigenfunctions
3
2 2
n1 ,n2 ,n3 (~r) = sin( n1 x) sin( n2 y) sin( n3 z) (1.22)
l l l l
and the energies
2 h2 2
En1 ,n2 ,n3 = En1 +n2 +n3 = 2
(n1 + n22 + n23 ) (1.23)
2me l
Since the different states can have the same energy (e.g. E211 = E121 = E112 )
i.e. the eigenvalues of the Hamilton operator H are degenerated, measuring
the energy is not sufficient for determining the actual electron distribution.

1.3 Algebraic Quantum Physics

While the Schrodinger Equation, in principle, allows to compute all details
of the particle distribution and the exact energy terms, having to deal with
partial differential equations, boundary conditions and normalization factors,
is usually very cumbersome and often cant be done analytically, anyway.
Just a nobody would try to develop a color TV set by solving Maxwell
equations, the discussion of complex quantum systems requires a more ab-
stract formalism.

1.3.1 The Hilbert Space

1.3.1.1 States as Vectors
The solutions n (x) from the examples in section 1.2.3.3 and 1.2.3.4 are
complex functions over the intervals I = [0, l] or I = [0, l]3 , respectively.
Lets introduce the following abbreviations8
|ni |n i n (x) and hn| hn | n (x) (1.24)
8
This formalism is called Braket notation and has been introduced by Dirac: The h|
terms are referred to as bra- and the |i terms as ket-vectors.
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 14

or, for the case of k indices

|n1 , n2 , . . . nk i n 1 ...nk (~r) and hn1 , n2 , . . . nk | n1 ...nk (~r) (1.25)

and also introduce a scalar Product h|i defined as

Z
h|i (~r)(~r)d~r (1.26)
I

The scalar product hi|ji of the eigenfunctions i and j from the on dimen-
sional capacitor example (1.2.3.3) gives
Z
2Z l
hi|ji = i (x)j (x)dx = sin( ix) sin( jx)dx (1.27)
I l 0 l l
The substitution = l x leads to

2Z
hi|ji = sin(i) sin(j)d = ij (1.28)
0
So the eigenfunctions of the Hamilton operator H are orthonormal according
to the scalar product (1.26) and therefor form the base of the orthonormal
vector space H consisting of all possible linear combinations of {1 , 2 , . . .}.
This space is the Hilbert space for this particular problem and it can be shown
that the eigenvalues of any operator describing a physical observable form
an orthogonal base.9

1.3.1.2 Completeness
Since the Schrodinger Equation is a linear differential equation, any linear
combination of solutions is also a solution and thus a valid physical state.
To calculate the expectation value hHi of the energy for a given state (x, t)
we have to solve the integral
Z
hHi = h|H|i = (x, t)H(x, t)dx (1.29)

If (x, t) is given as a sum of eigenfunctions as in equation 1.19, integration

can be avoided, as
h| |i
z }|
X { zX }| { X

hHi = ci hi| H cj |ji = ci cj hi|H|ji (1.30)
i j ij

9
As physical observables are real values, their corresponding operators O have to be
self-adjoint i.e. O = O
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 15

Since H |ii = Ei |ii and hi|ji = ij , hHi can be expressed as a weighted sum
of eigenvalues: X
hHi = |ci |2 Ei (1.31)
i

Using the eigenfunctions for the one-dimensional capacitor (1.2.3.3) the com-
plex amplitudes ci for an arbitrary continuous function f (x) over [0, l] are
given by s
2 Zl
ci = hi|f i = sin( ix)f (x)dx (1.32)
l 0 l
This describes a standard sine-Fourier Transform. The original function can
be reconstructed by a composition of eigenfunctions n (x) with the Fourier
components ci
s
X
2 X
f (x) = ci i (x) = ci sin( ix) (1.33)
i l i=1 l

As before, it can be shown that the eigenvalues of any Hamilton operator

always form a complete orthonormal base, thus
X
I= |iihi| with I|i = |i (1.34)
i

1.3.1.3 Definitions
A Hilbert space H is a linear vector space over the scalar body C. Let
|f i, |gi, |hi H and , C, then the following operations are defined [23]:

|f i + |gi H linear combination (1.35)

|f i H scalar multiplication (1.36)
|f i + |0i = |f i zero-element (1.37)
|f i + | f i = |0i inverse element (1.38)

The inner product h|i meets the following conditions:

hf |g + hi = hf |gi + hf |hi (1.39)

hf |gi = hf |gi (1.40)
hf |gi = (hg|f i) (1.41)
hf |f i = 0 |f i = |0i (1.42)
q
||f || hf |f i 0 (1.43)
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 16

1.3.2 Operators
1.3.2.1 Operators as Matrices
As we have shown in 1.3.1.2, all valid states can be expressed as a sum of
eigenfunctions, i.e.

X
(~r, t) = ci i (~r, t) (1.44)
i=0

If we use {0 , 1 , . . .} as unit vectors, we can write the bra- and ket-vectors

of as infinitely dimensional row- and column-vectors

c0

h| (c0 , c1 , . . .) and |i c (1.45)
1
..
.
The time independent Schrodinger equation can then be written as

E0 0 0

0 E1 0
|i = E |i (1.46)

0 0 E2

.. ...
.

The Hamilton Operator is the diagonal matrix H = diag(E0 , E1 , . . .). In

the case of multiple indices as in 1.2.3.4, a diagonalization such as e.g.
{000 , 100 , 010 , 001 , 110 , . . .}, can be used to order the eigenfunctions. If
such an diagonalization exists for a Hilbert space H, then every linear op-
erator O of H can be written in matrix form with the matrix elements
Oij = hi|O|ji.

O00 O01

O= O O11 with Oij = hi|O|ji (1.47)
10
.. ..
. .

1.3.2.2 Physical Observables

As has been mentioned in 1.2.2.3, in quantum physics, a physical observable
O is expressed as a linear operator O (see table 1.1) while the classical value
of O is the expectation value hOi. Obviously, the value of an observable such
as position or momentum must be real, as a length of (1 + i) meter would
have no physical meaning, so we require hOi R.
O is called adjoint operator to O if

hf|gi = hf |O|gi with |fi = O |f i (1.48)

CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 17

If O is given in matrix form, the O is the conjugated transposition of O, i.e.

O = (OT ) . An operator O with O = O is called self adjoint or Hermitian.
All quantum observables are represented by Hermitian operators as we
can reformulate the requirement hOi R as hOi = hOi or

h|O|i = (h|O|i) = h|O |i (1.49)

1.3.2.3 Measurement
In classical physics, the observables of a system such as particle location, mo-
mentum, Energy, etc. where thought to be well defined entities which change
their values over time according to certain dynamic laws and which could
technical difficulties aside in principle be observed without disturbing the
system itself. It is a fundamental finding of quantum physics that this is not
the case.

Measured Values: Measured values oi are always eigenvalues of their

according operator O.

Probability Spectrum: If the eigenvalue oi isnt degenerated and has

the eigenvector i , then the probability to measure oi is pi = |hi |i|2 .
If the eigenvalue oi is di -fold degenerated and {i,1 , i,2 , . . . i,di } is an
orthonormal base of the according eigenspace, then
di
X
pi = |hij |i|2 (1.50)
j=1

Reduction of the Wave Function: If the eigenvalue oi isnt degen-

erated, the post-measurement state | 0 i = |i i, otherwise
di
0 1 X
| i = |ij ihij |i (1.51)
pi j=1

Consider a state |i which is a composition of two eigenstates |1 i and

|2 i of the time-independent Schrodinger equation with the assorted energy-
eigenvalues E1 and E2

|i = c1 |1 i + c2 |2 i with |c1 |2 + |c2 |2 = 1 (1.52)

The expectation value of energy hHi = |c1 |2 E1 + |c2 |2 E2 , but if we actually

perform the measurement, we will measure either E1 or E2 with the prob-
abilities |c1 |2 and |c2 |2 . However, if we measure the resulting state again,
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 18

we will always get the same energy as in the first measurement as the wave
function has collapsed to either 1 or 2 .
(
|1 i with probability |c1 |2
|i (1.53)
|2 i with probability |c2 |2
The fact that hHi is only a statistical value, brings up the question when
it is reasonable to speak about the energy of a state (or any other observable,
for the matter) or, with other words, whether a physical quality of a system
exists for itself or is invariably tied to the process of measuring.
The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics argues that an observ-
able O only exists if the system in question happens to be in an eigenstate
of the according operator O [22].

1.3.2.4 The Uncertainty Principle

The destructive nature of measurement raises the question whether 2 observ-
ables A and B can be measured simultaneously. This can only be the case if
the post-measurement state 0 is an eigenfunction of A and B
A| 0 i = a| 0 i and B| 0 i = b| 0 i (1.54)
Using the commutator [A, B] = AB BA, this is equivalent to the condition
[A, B] = 0. If A and B dont commute, then the uncertainty product (see
1.2.2.3) (A)(B) > 0. To find a lower limit for (A)(B) we introduce
the operators A = A hAi and B = B hBi and can express the squared
uncertainty product as
(A)2 (B)2 = h(A)2 ih(B)2 i = h|(A)(A)|ih|(B)(B)|i (1.55)
Since A and B are self adjoint, we express the above as (A)2 (B)2 =
||A||2 ||B||2 . Using Schwarzs Inequality ||f ||2 ||g||2 ||f g||2 and the fact
that [A, B] = [A, B] we get
1
(A)(B) ||[A, B]|| (1.56)
2
Observables with a nonzero commutator [A, B] of the dimension of action
(i.e. a product of energy and time) are canonically conjugated. If we take
e.g. the location and momentum operators from 1.2.2.3, we find that
1 1
(Ri )(Pj ) ||[ri , ih ]|| = hij (1.57)
2 rj 2
This means that it is impossible to define the location and the impulse for the
same coordinate to arbitrary precision; it is, however, possible the measure
the location in x-direction together with the impulse in y-direction.
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 19

1.3.2.5 Temporal Evolution

In 1.2.3.1 we have shown how the Schrodinger equation can be separated if
the Hamilton operator is time independent.
If we have the initial value problem with (t = 0) = 0 we can define an
operator U (t) such that

HU (t) |0 i = ih U (t) |0 i and U (0)|i = |i (1.58)
t

We get the operator equation HU = ih t U with the solution

hi Ht
X 1 (i)n tn
U (t) = e = n Hn (1.59)
n=0 n! h

U is the operator of temporal evolution and satisfies the criterion

U (t) |(t0 )i = |(t0 + t)i (1.60)

P
If |i = i ci |ii is a solution of the time-independent Schrodinger equation,
then
X Ei
|(t)i = U (t) |i = ci eii t |ii with i = (1.61)
i h
is the corresponding time dependent solution (see 1.2.3.1).

1.3.2.6 Unitary Operators

The operator of temporal evolution satisfies the condition
i i
U (t)U (t) = e h Ht e h Ht = 1 (1.62)

Operators U with U = U (1) are called unitary. Since the temporal evolution
of a quantum system is described by a unitary operator and U (t) = U (t)
it follows that the temporal behavior of a quantum system is reversible, as
long a no measurement is performed.10
Unitary operators can also be used to describe abstract operations like
rotations

Rz () |n1 , n2 , n3 i = cos()|n1 , n2 , n3 i + i sin()|n2 , n1 , n3 i (1.63)

10
since a measurement can result in a reduction of the wave-function (see 1.3.2.3), it is
generally impossible to reconstruct |i from the post-measurement state | 0 i
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 20

or the flipping of eigenstates

|1i
if n = 0
Not |ni = |0i if n = 1 (1.64)

|ni otherwise

without the need to specify how this transformations are actually performed
or having to deal with time-dependent Hamilton operators.
Mathematically, unitary operations can be described as base-transform-
ations between 2 orthonormal bases (just like rotations in R3 ). Let A and B
be Hermitian operators with the orthonormal eigenfunctions n and n and
P P
|i = i ci |i i = i ci |i i, then the Fourier coefficients ci are given by

c0 c0
X
c1 = U c1 with U = |i ihi |j ihj | (1.65)

..
.. i,j
. .

1.3.3 Composed systems

1.3.3.1 Spin
In section 1.2.3.4 we have calculated the eigenstates n1 ,n2 ,n3 for an electron in
a 3 dimensional trap. Real electrons are also characterized by the orientation
of their spin which can be either up () or down (). The spin-state |i
of an electron can therefor be written as
!

|i = = | i + | i with ||2 + ||2 = 1 (1.66)

The spins also form a finite Hilbert space HS = C2 with the orthonormal
base {| i, | i}. If we combine HS with the solution space HR for the spinless
problem (equation 1.22), we get a combined Hilbert space H = HR HB
with the base-vectors

|n1 , n2 , n3 , si = |n1 ,n2 ,n3 i|si with n1 , n2 , n3 N, s {, } (1.67)

1.3.3.2 Product States

If we have two independent quantum systems A and B described by the
Hamilton operators HA and Hb with the orthonormal eigenvectors iA and
jB , which are in the states
X X
| A i = ai |iA i and | B i = bj |jB i (1.68)
i j
CHAPTER 1. QUANTUM PHYSICS IN A NUTSHELL 21

then the common state |i is given by

X X
|i = | A i| B i = ai bj |iA i|jB i = ai bj |i, ji (1.69)
i,j i,j

Such states are called product states. Unitary transformations and measure-
ments applied to only one subsystem dont affect the other as
X
U A |i = (U I)| A i| B i = Uik ak jl bl |i, ji = U | A i | B i (1.70)
i,j,k,l

and the probability pA A

i to measure the energy Ei in system A is given by
11

2 2
2 X X

pA
i = h A
i |h B
| |i =
b
a b
j k l hi, j|k, li
= a
i b
j j = |ai |
b 2
j,k,l j
(1.71)

1.3.3.3 Entanglement
If |i is not a product state, then operations on one subsystem can affect
the other. Consider two electrons with the common spin state
1
|i = (| i + | i) (1.72)
2
If we measure the spin of the first electron, we get either | i or | i with the
equal probability p = 1/2 which the resulting post-measurement states | i
or | i. Consequently, if we measure the spin of the second electron, we will
always find it to be anti-parallel to the first.
Two systems whose common wave-function |i is not a product state are
entangled.

11
We assume here that the eigenvalue EiA isnt degenerated, otherwise the solution is
analog to equation 1.50.
Chapter 2

Quantum Computers

The application of quantum physical principles to the field of computing leads

to the concept of the quantum computer, in which data isnt stored as bits in
conventional memory, but as the combined quantum state of many 2-state
systems of qubits.
This chapter introduces the theoretical foundations, components and basic
operations of a quantum computer as well several models of quantum compu-
tation.

2.1 Introduction
2.1.1 The Church-Turing Thesis
The basic idea of modern computing science is the view of computation as
a mechanical, rather than a purely mental process. A method, or procedure
M for achieving some desired result is called effective or mechanical just in
case [17]

1. M is set out in terms of a finite number of exact instructions (each

instruction being expressed by means of a finite number of symbols);

2. M will, if carried out without error, always produce the desired result
in a finite number of steps;

3. M can (in practice or in principle) be carried out by a human being

unaided by any machinery save paper and pencil;

4. M demands no insight or ingenuity on the part of the human being

carrying it out.

22
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 23

Alan Turing and Alonzo Church both formalized the above definition by
introducing the concept of computability by Turing machine and the math-
ematically equivalent concept of recursive functions with the following con-
clusions:

Turings thesis LCMs [logical computing machines i.e. Turing machines]

can do anything that could be described as rule of thumb or purely me-
chanical. [19]

Churchs thesis A function of positive integers is effectively calculable

only if recursive. [18]

As the above statements are equivalent, they are commonly referred to

as the Church-Turing Thesis which defines the scope of classical computing
science.

2.1.2 Computing Machines

Despite its operationalistic approach, the above computability concept doesnt
have much in common with the continuous nature of physics, so in order to
build a computing machine M, we have to introduce a labeling function m
which maps the analog physical states S(t) (e.g. the tension of a capacitor)
to digital computational states s = (S(t)) (e.g. the value of a bit) The digital
states have to be strings over some finite alphabet .
Since the above definition of computability requires a finite number of
both, symbols and instructions, the labeling function only needs to apply on
discrete intermediate machine states S(t0 ), S(t1 ), . . . so the temporal evolu-
tion of the machine state S(t) is mapped onto a sequence of computational
states {s0 , s1 , . . . sn } where each transition si si+1 corresponds to one func-
tion Ii : from a enumerable set I of (simple) instructions.1 The
sequence = {I0 , I1 , . . . In1 } is called program.
1
For hypothetical machines with unlimited memory, the instruction set I might also be
infinitely which is not in accordance with Turings original definition of computability.
The Turing Machine avoids this problem by extending the computational states si with
an integer p and using this head position as an additional parameter to the generated
instructions. As p (which can get arbitrary large) would be stored in the physical
position of the head and not in the state of the head itself, it can still be claimed that the
TM operates by finite means.
Even with our simpler model, we could avoid an infinitely instruction set, e.g. by
interpreting a state s = 1p 0t with t as the pair s = (p, t), and define the instructions
as Ii (p, t) : N0 N0 .
As we are discussing physical computers, which usually dont have unlimited memory,
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 24

The states s0 and sn are called the input- and the output-state. The
machine M = (S, m, , ) thus implements the function

f (s0 ) = (I0 I1 . . . In1 )(s0 ) with s0 = m(S(0)) (2.1)

2.1.3 Computation as a Physical Process

The above definition of a computing machine poses severe restrictions on the
interpretation of physical states. If we consider computation as a physical
process, rather than a mechanical manipulation of symbols as defined in
2.1.1, we can drop all restrictions in the above definition which dont have a
physical equivalent.

2.1.3.1 Indeterminism
As we have showed in 1.3.2.3, the measurement of an observable O with the
according operator O is only deterministic, if a system is in an eigenstate of
O. To account for the stochastic nature of quantum measurement, we have
to replace the labeling function m by a probabilistic operator M : H
which randomly chooses a string s according to some probability distribution
P
: s [0, 1] with s (s) = 1.

2.1.3.2 Temporal Evolution

Since it is not possible to non-destructively measure a quantum system and
we are only interested in the result of a computation, anyway, it is not nec-
essary that a labeling is defined for the intermediate steps (t1 ) to (tn1 )
of a computation i.e. it is not required to watch the temporal evolution of
the system, as long as a labeling for the input- and output-state 0 and n
is given.
While the transitions (ti ) (ti+1 ) still have to correspond to (simple)
operations Ui from a enumerable instruction set of quantum transformations,
the operators Ui , dont have to directly correspond to functions in .2
In 1.3.2.6 we have shown that the temporal evolution of a quantum system
is mathematically described by unitary operators, so a quantum program =
{U0 , U1 , . . . Un1 } is a composition of elementary unitary transformations.
we can ignore this problem, and use the simpler and more general computer definition
given above.
2
Because of the reversibility of unitary operators, a direct correspondence would only
be possible for bijective functions f :
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 25

2.2 Components of a Quantum Computer

A classical, as well as a quantum computer, essentially consists of 3 parts: a
memory, which holds the current machine state, a processor, which performs
elementary operations on the machine state, and some sort of input/output
which allows to set the initial state and extract the final state of the compu-
tation.

2.2.1 Quantum Memory

2.2.1.1 The Qubit
The quantum analogy to the classical bit is the quantum bit or qubit. Just as
a classical bit is represented by a system which can adopt one of two distinct
states 0 and 1 we can define a quantum bit as follows:

Definition 1 (Qubit) A qubit or quantum bit is a quantum system whose

state can be fully described by a superposition of two orthonormal eigenstates
labeled |0i and |1i.

The general state |i H of a qubit is given by

|i = |0i + |1i with ||2 + ||2 = 1 (2.2)

The value of a qubit is the observable N with the Hermitian operator N |ii =
i |ii over the Hilbert space H = C2 , or in matrix representation
!
0 0
N= (2.3)
0 1

The expectation value of N is given by

! !
0 0
hN i = h|N |i =

= ||2 (2.4)
0 1

thus, hN i gives the probability to find the system in state |1i if a measurement
is performed on the qubit.

2.2.1.2 Combination of Qubits

If we combine 2 qubits, the general state of the resulting system is

|i = |00i + |10i + |01i + |11i with ||2 + ||2 + ||2 + ||2 = 1 (2.5)
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 26

While we still can define distinct observables N (1) and N (2) for the value of
each qubit with the operators N (1) |iji = i |iji and N (2) |iji = j |iji, their
expectation values

hN (1) i = ||2 + ||2 and hN (2) i = ||2 + ||2 (2.6)

dont allow us to reconstruct the actual probability distribution among the

eigenvalues. To illustrate this, consider the states
1 1
|A i = (|00i + |11i), |B i = (|10i + |01i) (2.7)
2 2
1
and |C i = (|00i + |10i + |01i + |11i)
2
All of these states have the expectation values hN (1) i = hN (2) i = 1/2, i.e. if
we measure a single qubit, we get either |0i or |1i with equal probability; we
get, however, totally different post-measurement states.
If we measure |1i in the first qubit, the resulting post-measurement states
are
1
|0A i = |11i, |0B i = |10i and |0C i = (|10i + |11i) (2.8)
2
and the expectation values for the second qubit are now given by
(2) (2) (2) 1
hNA i = 1, hNB i = 0 and hNC i = (2.9)
2

2.2.1.3 Machine State

While the state of a classical computer can be given as the distinct states
of all bits in memory and processor registers, the state of a qubit is a
meaningless term, if the machine state is the combined state of more than
one system.3

Definition 2 (Machine State) The machine state of an n-qubit quan-

tum computer is the current state of a combined system of n identical qubit
subsystems.

Generally, the machine state of an n-qubit quantum computer is given

by
X X
|i = cd0 ...dn1 |d0 . . . dn1 i with |cd0 ...dn1 |2 = 1 (2.10)
(d0 ...dn1 )Bn

3
Unless the machine state happens to be a product state, that is (see 1.3.3.2).
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 27

The combined Hilbert space H is thus a composition of n 1-qubit-Hilbert

spaces Hi = C2 , i.e.
n
H = H1 H2 . . . Hn = C2 (2.11)
If we interpret the eigenvectors |d0 . . . dn1 i as binary digits, with d0 as least
significant bit, we can write this as
n 1
2X
|i = ci |ii with |d0 + 2d1 + . . . + 2n1 dn1 i |d0 . . . dn1 i (2.12)
i=0

The operator Ni for value Ni of the i-th qubit is given by

Ni |d0 . . . dn1 i = di |d0 . . . dn1 i (2.13)
and has the expectation value
X
hNi i = di |cd0 ...dn1 |2 (2.14)
(d0 ...dn1 )Bn

2.2.1.4 Subsystems
As we have shown above, the memory of an n-qubit quantum computer is
a combined system of n identical qubit-subsystems. Since the partition into
subsystems is merely methodical, we can consider the first m qubits (m < n)
as a single subsystem and write as
m 1 2nm 1
2X X n
|i = cij |i, ji with |i H = C2 (2.15)
i=0 j=0

As the base vectors |i, ji are product states |i, ji = |ii|ji, the Hilbert space
H can be written as a combination of
m nm
H = H0 H00 with H0 = C2 and H00 = C2 (2.16)
Let U 0 and U 00 be unitary operators over H0 and H00 , then the commutator
[U 0 , U 00 ] = 0 as
X
[U 0 , U 00 ] |i = cij [U 0 |ii(U 00 |ji) U 00 (U 0 |ii)|ji] = 0 (2.17)
i,j

This means that unitary transformations applied to distinct subsets of qubits

are independent.
A unitary transformation U 0 over the first m qubits also doesnt affect a
measurement of the remaining qubits since the probability p00j to measure j
in the remaining n m qubits, i.e. to get a post-measurement state of the
form |0 i = |j i|ji, is invariant to U 0 , as
X X
p00j = cij cij hi|iihj|ji = cij cij hi|U 0 U 0 |iihj|ji (2.18)
i i
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 28

2.2.1.5 Quantum Registers

The above notion of m-qubit subsystems can easily be extended to arbitrary
sequences of qubits.

Definition 3 (Quantum Register) An m qubit quantum Register s is a

sequence of mutually different zero-based qubit positions hs0 , s1 . . . sm1 i of
m
some machine state |i C2 with n m.

Reordering Operators Let s be an m qubit register of the n qubit state

|i. Using an arbitrary permutation over n elements with i = si for
i < m, we can construct a unitary reordering operator s by permutating
the qubits.
s |d0 , d1 . . . dn1 i = |d0 , d1 . . . dn1 i (2.19)
Note that there exist (n m)! permutations (k)s which fit into the above
definition, since i is only defined for i < m.
Unitary operators correspond to base transformations (see 1.3.2.6), so we
can write |i = s |i as
m 1 2nm 1
2X X
|i = cij |i, ji with cij = c and |, i = s |i, ji (2.20)
i=0 j=0

As above, the transformed Hilbert space H can be written as a combination

m nm
H = H0 H00 with H0 = C2 and H00 = C2 (2.21)

Unitary Operators Let U 0 be a m-qubit unitary operator over H0 and

U = U 0 I(n m) with I(k) being the k-qubit identity operator.
X
U |i = cij (U 0 |ii)|ji (2.22)
i,j

For each permutation (k)

s , we can define a back-transformed operator
X (k)
U (k) = (k)
s U (k)
s = |i0 , j 0 i ui0 j 0 ij hi, j| (2.23)
i0 ,j 0 ,i,j

with the matrix elements

(k)
ui0 j 0 ij = h0(k) |U 0 |(k) ih0(k) |(k) i and |(k) , (k) i = (k)
s |i, ji (2.24)

Since the transformed base vectors (k) are identical for all permutations (k) s
and h0(k) |(k) i = j 0 j , it follows that the back-transformation U 0 I U is
independent from the chosen permutation (k) s .
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 29

Register Observables Just as with single qubits, we can define an ob-

servable S for a given m-qubit register s with the operator

S = (N0 , N1 , . . . Nm1 ) and Ni |d0 . . . dn1 i = di |d0 . . . dn1 i (2.25)

or, if we interpret the binary vectors as integers,

X X
S= s |i, jiihi, j| s = |i, jihi, j| (2.26)
i,j i,j

2.2.2 Processing Units

2.2.2.1 Unitary Operators
In a classical n-bit computer, every computational step can be described by
a transition function I : Bn Bn which takes the current state S of all bits
as input and returns the appropriate post-instruction state S 0 .
As we have shown in 1.3.2.6, the temporal evolution of a quantum system
can be described by unitary operators. The general form of a n-qubit unitary
n
operator U over the Hilbert space H = C2 is
n 1 2n 1
2X n 1
2X
X
U= |ii uij hj| with uki ukj = ij (2.27)
i=0 j=0 k=0

If we compare boolean functions to unitary operators from a strictly func-

tional point of view we can identify three major differences between classical
and quantum operations:

Reversibility: Since unitary operators, by definition, match the con-

dition U U = I, for every transformation U there exists the inverse
transformation U . As a consequence, quantum computation is re-
stricted to reversible functions.4
Superposition: An eigenstate |i = |ki can be transformed into a
superposition of eigenstates.
X
|0 i = U |ki = Uk0 k |ki (2.28)
k0

The mathematical explanation of this feature lies in the fact that the
requirement hi|U U |ji = ij is weaker than the pseudo-classical (see
2.2.2.4) condition

hi|U |i ihi |j ihj |U |ji = ij (2.29)

4
A classical analogon would be the class of reversible boolean functions
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 30

which requires transformed eigenstates not only to be orthonormal, but

also to be of the form U |ki = |k i with some appropriate permutation
(i.e. reversible function) over Z2n .

Parallelism: If the machine state |i already is a superposition of

several eigenstates, then a transformation U is applied to all eigenstates
simultaneously. X X
U ci |ii = ci U |ii (2.30)
i i

This feature of quantum computing is called quantum parallelism and

is a consequence of the linearity of unitary transformations.

2.2.2.2 Register Operators

The basic instructions of a classical computer usually operate only on a very
small number of bits and are typically independent from the total amount of
available memory. Therefor it is more useful to describe those instructions not
as boolean functions F over the whole state space Bn (in the case of an n bit
machine), but as parameterized functions fx over Bm , where the vector x
Zn only holds the bit-positions of the relevant arguments. Consequently we
refer to the resulting instruction F as applying f to the bits x0 , x1 . . . xn1 .
While it is clear what we mean by e.g. swapping the bits 3 and 5
on a classical computer, we cannot blindly adopt this concept to quantum
computing, because unitary operators operate on states and a single qubit
doesnt have a state.5
In 2.2.1.5 we have defined a quantum register as a sequence of (mutually
different) qubit-positions s = hs0 , s1 . . . sm1 i, which is the quantum analogon
to the above argument vector v, and a class of (n m)! reordering operators
(k)
s which meet the condition

(k) (k)
s |d0 , d1 . . . dn1 i = |ds0 , ds1 . . . dsm1 i| i (2.31)

Definition 4 (Register Operator) The register operator U (s) for an m-

m m
qubit unitary operator U : C2 C2 and a m-qubit quantum register s on
an n-qubit quantum computer is the n-qubit operator

U (s) = s (U I(n m)) s (2.32)

with an arbitrary reordering operator s

5
unless its the only qubit in the quantum computer at which point the whole question
of addressed instructions becomes moot, anyway.
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 31

So U (s) |i is what we actually mean, by application of operator U to

n!
quantum register s. Since there are (nm)! possible m-qubit registers on an
n!
n-qubit machine, a given m-qubit operator U can describe (nm)! different
transformations U (s).
In analogy to boolean networks, unitary operators which can be applied
to arbitrary sets of qubits are also referred to as quantum gates.

2.2.2.3 Universal Quantum Gates

A well known result from classical boolean logic, is that any possible function
f : Bn Bm can be constructed as a composition from a small universal
set of operators if we can wire the inputs and outputs to arbitrary bits
in a feed-forward network. Examples for universal sets of logical gates are
{, }, {, } or { }.
As mentioned in 1.3.2.6, unitary operations can be described as abstract
rotations in the Hilbert space. A complex rotation of a single qubit has
the general form
!
i ei cos ei sin
U 2(, , , ) = e (2.33)
ei sin ei cos
If this operator could be applied to arbitrary 2-dimensional subspaces H0 =
C2 of H = H0 H00 , thenany unitary
transformation could be constructed by
dim H
composition in at most 2
steps [14], very much like a general rotation

in Rn can be decomposed into n2 simple rotations in the coordinate planes.
In our definition of quantum gates, however, we are restricted to sub-
spaces corresponding to quantum registers (see 2.2.1.5), so in the case of an
n-qubit quantum computer (dim H = 2n ), this leaves us with merely n pos-
sible 1-qubit subspaces H0 and the corresponding sets of register operators
U 2(i) (, , , ). Since [U 2(i) , U 2(j) ] = 0, any composition U of U 2 gates,
would result in a transformation of the form
U |d0 , d1 , . . . dn1 i = (U1 |d0 i)(U2 |d2 i) . . . (Un1 |dn1 i) (2.34)
So just as the NOT gate itself is not universal for boolean logic, to con-
struct a universal set of quantum gates, we require an additional 2-qubit
operation, to create entangled multi-qubit states.
One possibility for a nontrivial 2-qubit operator is XOR which is defined
as XOR : |x, yi |x, x yi or in matrix notation:

1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0

XOR = (2.35)
0 0 0 1
0 0 1 0
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 32

Deutsch [6] has shown that the set {U 2(, , , ), XOR} is in fact uni-
versal for unitary transformation. Furthermore, since {U 2( 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 )n } is
dense in {U 2(, , , )} for almost any6 set of parameters, {U 2, XOR} is
universal for most U 2 in the sense that any unitary transformation U can be
approximated to arbitrary precision.
Deutsch also proposed a 3-qubit gate D() which is universal, while only
requiring one parameter:
(
i cos |i, j, ki + sin |i, j, 1 ki for i = j = 1
D() : |i, j, ki (2.36)
|i, j, ki otherwise

2.2.2.4 Pseudo-classic Operators

The general form of a unitary operator U over n qubits is
n 1 2n 1
2X n 1
2X
X
U= |ii uij hj| with uki ukj = ij (2.37)
i=0 j=0 k=0

If the matrix elements uij are of the form uij = ij with some permutation
, then their effect on pure states (base-vectors) can be described in terms
of classical reversible boolean logic.

Definition 5 (Pseudo-classic Operator) A n-qubit pseudo-classic oper-

ator is a unitary operator of the form U : |ii |i i with some permutation
n
over Z2 .

For = /2 the universal Deutsch gate D() (2.36) degenerates into the
pseudo-classic operator

T = D( ) = |i, j, (i j) kihi, j, k| with i, j, k B (2.38)
2
T is the 3-bit controlled-not or Toffoli gate, which is a universal gate for
reversible boolean logic.
Let f : Z2n Z2n be a bijective function, then the corresponding pseudo-
classic operator F is given as
n 1
2X n 1
2X
1
F = |f (i)ihi| and F =F = |iihf (i)| (2.39)
i=0 i=0

6
basically, it is just required that the quotients between 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 and are irrational.
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 33

2.2.2.5 Quantum Functions

One obvious problem of quantum computing is its restriction to reversible
computations. Consider a simple arithmetical operation like integer division
by 2 (DIV2 0 |ii = |i/2i for even i and |(i 1)/2i for odd i). Clearly, this
operation is non-reversible since DIV2 0 |0i = DIV2 0 |1i, so no corresponding
pseudo-classic operator exists.
However, if we use a second register with the initial value |0i, then we can
define an operator DIV2 which matches the condition DIV2 |x, 0i = |x, x/2i
or |x, (x 1)/2i respectively. The behavior of DIV2 |x, y 6= 0i is undefined
and can be set arbitrarily as long as DIV2 remains pseudo-classic.7 .

Definition 6 (Quantum Functions) For any function f : Bn Bm (or

equivalently f : Z2n Z2m ) there exists a class of pseudo-classic operators
n+m n+m
F : C2 C2 working on an n-qubits input and an m-qubits output
register with F |x, 0i = |x, f (x)i. Operators of that kind are referred to as
quantum functions.

For any boolean function f : Bn Bm there exist (2n+m 2n )! different

quantum functions F .

2.2.2.6 Conditional Operators

Classical programs allow the conditional execution of code in dependence on
the content of a boolean variable (conditional branching).
A unitary operator, on the other hand, is static and has no internal flow-
control. Nevertheless, we can conditionally apply an n qubit operator U to a
quantum register by using an enable qubit and define an n + 1 qubit operator
U0 !
0 I(n) 0
U = (2.40)
0 U
So U is only applied to base-vectors where the enable bit is set. This can be
easily extended to enable-registers of arbitrary length.

Definition 7 (Conditional Operator) A conditional operator U[[e]] with

the enable register e is a unitary operator of the form
(
(U |ii) |ie if = 111 . . .
U[[e]] : |i, i = |ii|ie (2.41)
|ii|ie otherwise
7
In this special case, just one additional qubit to hold the lowest bit of the argument
would suffice to extend DIV2 0 to a unitary operator.
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 34

Conditional operators a frequently used in arithmetic quantum functions

and other pseudo-classic operators.
If the architecture allows the efficient implementation of the controlled-
V
not gate C : |x, y1 , y2 . . .i |(x i yi ), y1 , y2 . . .i, then conditional pseudo-
classic operators can be realized by simply adding the enable string to the
control register of all controlled-not operations.

2.2.3 Input and Output

2.2.3.1 Quantum Computing and Information Processing
In 2.1.3 we have shown that the interpretation of computing as a physical pro-
cess, rather than the abstract manipulation of symbols, leads to an extended
notion of computability. We have also identified the the concept of unitary
transformations as an adequate paradigm for physical computability.
Unitary transformations describe the transition between machine states
and thereby the temporal evolution of a quantum system. The very notion of
a (quantum) computer as a computing machine requires, however, that the
evolution of the physical system corresponds to a processing of information.
Classical information theory requires that any reasonable information
can be expressed as a series of answers to yes-no questions, i.e. a string of
bits. But unlike classical symbolic computation, where every single step of a
computation can be mapped onto a bit-string, physical computation requires
such a labeling only for the initial and the final machine state (see 2.1.3.2),
the labels of which make up the input and output of the computation.
This requirement is in full accordance with the Copenhagen interpretation
of quantum physics, which states that the setup and the outcome of any
experiment has to be described in classical terms.

2.2.3.2 Labeling of States

As the machine state is not directly accessible, any physically realizable
labeling has to correspond to an observable O. As has been shown in 1.3.2.2,
in quantum physics, an observable O is expressed by a Hermitian operator
O.
A natural choice for O on an n-qubit quantum computer would be the
classical values N = (N0 , N1 , . . . Nn1 ) of the singe qubits with the Hermitian
operators

N = (N0 , N1 , . . . Nn1 ) = N0 + 2N1 + . . . + 2n1 Nn1 (2.42)

Ni |d0 . . . dn1 i = di |d0 . . . dn1 i

CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 35

As N is only defined for eigenstates of N (see 1.3.2.3), the labeling m : H

Bn is only defined for states H of the form

|i = ei |d0 . . . dn1 i (2.43)

2.2.3.3 Initialization
To set a quantum computer to a desired initial state |0 i = |s0 i correspond-
ing to the boolean input string s0 , it suffices to provide means to initially
cool all qubits to |0i and then apply any unitary transformation U which
matches the condition U |0i = |s0 i.

Definition 8 The reset operator R is a constant operator over H and defined

as R|i = |0i.

2.2.3.4 Measurement
As has been described in 1.3.2.3, it is impossible to observe a quantum state
without, at the same time, forcing the system to adopt a state 0 which
is an eigenstate of the Hermitian operator O corresponding to the observed
quantity O. The transition probability is thereby given as
2
p0 = |h 0 |i| (2.44)

If we measure the binary values N of an n-qubit quantum computer in

the state n 2X
1
|i = ci |ii (2.45)
i=0

the probabilities to measure i and the assorted post measurement states are
consequently
pi = |ci |2 and |i0 i = |ii (2.46)

2.2.3.5 Partial Measurement

Measurements dont have to cover the whole machine state, but can also be
restricted to single qubits or quantum registers.
Consider two quantum registers with n and m qubits in the state
n 1 2m 1
2X X X
|i = ci,j |i, ji with ci,j ci,j = 1 (2.47)
i=0 j=0 i,j
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 36

The probability pi to measure the number i in the first register and the
according post measurement state |i0 i are given by
m 1
2X m 1
1 2X
pi = ci,j ci,j , and |i0 i = ci,j |i, ji (2.48)
j=0 pi j=0

The measurement of qubits is the only non unitary operation, a quantum

computer must be able to perform during calculation.

2.3 Models of Quantum Computation

In classical information theory, the concept of the universal computer can be
represented by several equivalent models, corresponding to different scientific
approaches. From a mathematical point of view, a universal computer is a
machine capable of calculating partial recursive functions, computer scientists
often use the Turing machine as their favorite model, an electro-engineer
would possibly speak of logic circuits while a programmer certainly will prefer
a universal programming language.
As for quantum computation, each of these classical concepts has a quan-
tum counterpart: [25]

Model classical quantum

Mathematical partial recursive funct. unitary operators
Machine Turing Machine QTM
Circuit logical circuit quantum gates
Algorithmic univ. programming language QPLs

Table 2.1: classical and quantum computational models

2.3.1 The Mathematical Model of QC

The paradigm of computation as a physical process requires that QC can
in principle be described by the same means as any other physical reality,
which, for the field of quantum physics, is the mathematical formalism of
Hilbert space operator algebra. The basics of this formalism, as far as they
are relevant to QC, have been the topic of 1.3 and chapter 2.
The moral equivalent in QC to partial recursive functions, the mathe-
matical concept of classical computability, are unitary operators. As every
classically computable problem can be reformulated as calculating the value
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 37

of a partial recursive function, each quantum computation must have a cor-

responding unitary operator.
The mathematical description of an operator is inherently declarative;
the actual implementation for a certain quantum architecture i.e. the al-
gorithmic decomposition into elementary operations, is beyond the scope of
this formalism. Also, since the mathematical model treats unitary operators
as black boxes, no complexity measure is provided.

2.3.2 Quantum Turing Machines

In analogy to the classic Turing Machine (TM) several propositions of Quan-
tum Turing Machines (QTM), as a model of a universal quantum computer
have been made [3, 1].
The complete machine-state |i is thereby given by a superposition of
base-states |l, j, si, where l is the inner state of the head, j the head position
and s the binary representation of the tape-content. To keep H separable,
the (infinite) bit-string s has to meet the zero tail state condition i.e. only a
finite number of bits with sm 6= 0 are allowed.
The quantum analogon to the transition function of a classic probabilistic
TM is the step operator T , which has to be unitary to allow for the existence
of a corresponding Hamiltonian (see 1.3.2.5) and meet locality conditions for
the effected tape-qubit, as well as for head movement.
QTMs provide a measure for execution times, but as with the classical
TM finding an appropriate step operator can be very hard and runtime-
complexity (i.e. the number of applications of T in relation to the problem
size) remains an issue. Outside quantum complexity theory, QTMs are of
minor importance.

2.3.3 Quantum Circuits

Quantum circuits are the QC equivalent to classical boolean feed-forward
networks, with one major difference: since all quantum computations have
to be unitary, all quantum circuits can be evaluated in both directions (as
with classical reversible logic). Quantum circuits are composed of elementary
gates and operate on qubits, thus dim(H) = 2n where n is the (fixed) number
of qubits. The wiring between the gates thereby corresponds to unitary
reordering operators s (see 2.2.1.5).
In comparison with classical boolean feed-forward networks, this imposes
the following restrictions:
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 38

Only n-to-n networks are allowed i.e. the total number of inputs has
to match the total number of outputs.

Only n-to-n gates are allowed.

No forking of inputs is allowed. This is directly related to the fact that

qubits cant be copied, i.e. that there exists no unitary operation

Copy |i|0i |i|i with |i C2 (2.49)

which can turn a general qubit-state into a product state of itself.

No dead ends are allowed. Again, this is because the erasure of a

qubit
Erase |i |0i with |i C2 (2.50)
is not a unitary operation.

To allow for implementation of all possible unitary transformations, a

universal set of elementary gates must be available, out of which composed
gates can be constructed (see 2.2.2.3). Each m-qubit gate U thereby describes
n!
up to (nm)! different unitary transformations U (s), depending on the wiring
of the inputs (see 2.2.2.2).
As opposed to the operator formalism, the gate-notation is an inherently
constructive method and other than QTMs the complexity of the prob-
lem is directly reflected in the number of gates necessary to implement it.

2.3.4 Quantum Programming Languages

When it comes to programming and the design of non-classic algorithms, we
can look at the mathematical description as the specification and quantum
circuits as the assembly language of QC.
Just as classical programming languages, quantum programming lan-
guages (QPLs) provide a constructive means to specify the sequence of ele-
mentary operators, while allowing nested levels of abstraction.

2.3.4.1 Flow Control

In its simplest form, a quantum algorithm merely consists of a unitary trans-
formation and a subsequent measurement of the resulting state. This would
e.g. be the case, if a quantum computer is used to emulate the behavior of
another quantum system.
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 39

START

reset
classical control structure machine state

quantum operations
unitary
transformation

evaluate measure
measurement machine state

solution
no found?

yes

STOP

Figure 2.1: A simple non-classical algorithm

For more traditional computational tasks, as e.g. searching or mathe-

matical calculations, efficient quantum implementations often have the form
of probabilistic algorithms. Figure 2.1 shows the basic outline of a proba-
bilistic non-classical algorithm with a simple evaluation loop.
More complex quantum algorithms, as e.g. Shors algorithm for quan-
tum factoring (see 4.2), can also include classical random numbers, partial
measurements, nested evaluation loops and multiple termination conditions:
The actual quantum operations as resetting of the machine state, unitary
transformations and measurements are embedded into a classical flow-control
framework.
A formal way to describe the classical control structure, is to consider
quantum operations as special statements within a classical procedural lan-
guage. Therefor any QPL also has to be a universal programming language.

2.3.4.2 Operator Specification

Classical procedural languages provide different levels of abstraction by allow-
ing the grouping of primitives into reusable subroutines (procedures) which
can operate on different data (parameters, references) and use temporally
CHAPTER 2. QUANTUM COMPUTERS 40

allocated memory (local variables).

If this concept is to be used for the definition of unitary operators, then
language elements have to be provided which account for the reversibility of
unitary transformation and the non-local nature of entangled quantum bits.

Mathematical Semantics: The effect of an operator has to be uni-

form and has to be restricted to the quantum machine state i.e. the
use of an operator must not interfere with the classical state of the
machine.
This means that the implementation of an operator must only depend
on its parameters and must not produce any side-effects. This esp.
excludes the use of global variables and the use of non-deterministic
functions (such as a random numbers).

Unitarity: It has to be assured that operators are restricted to unitary

transformation. This excludes non-unitary quantum operations such as
measurement.

Reversibility: Since for any unitary operator, there exists an inverse

adjoint operator, a QPL should provide means to execute operators in
reverse.

Symbolic Registers: An operator must be able to operate on any

set of qubits. This requires the ability to define symbolic quantum
registers.
Chapter 3

Quantum Programming

This chapter discusses the programming of quantum computers and the design
of quantum algorithms in the experimental quantum programming language
QCL.

3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 Computers and Programming
As has been illustrated in 2.1.2, a computer is basically a device which

1. holds a physical machine state S

2. is capable of performing a set of well defined instructions I to transform

between machine states

3. provides means to initialize and measure the machine state while in-
terpreting S as discrete symbolic computational states s

The sequence of instructions = hI1 , I2 , . . . In i to transform the initial state

S into the final state Sn is called a program.
The way is actually specified, depends on the computational model;
possibilities vary from explicit enumeration, over feed forward networks (as
in logical circuits) and decision trees up to finite automatons (as in the Turing
machine).
A general requirement of any specification method is, that the mechanism
used to produce must not be more powerful or complex than the machine
it is executed on, which would defy the purpose of using a computer in the
first place.

41
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 42

3.1.2 Complexity Requirements

As has been pointed out in 2.3.4, QPLs use a classical universal program-
ming language to define the actual sequence of instructions for a quantum
computer. According to the above criterion, this approach is useful, only if
quantum computers are at least as powerful as universal classical computers.
If we consider a quantum computer with the Toffoli gate (see 2.2.2.4) as
the only available instruction, then any transformation of the machine state
has to be of the form

|i = |ii |g(i)i = |i with g : Bn Bn (3.1)

Since the Toffoli gate is universal for reversible boolean logic, any bijective
boolean function g can directly be implemented on a quantum computer.
A general boolean function f over Bn , can be implemented by using a
pseudo-classical operator F

F |i, 0i = |i, f (i)i with F F = I (3.2)

So any classically computable function f can also be implemented on a

quantum computer. Moreover, C. H. Bennet has shown that a reversible
implementation
of f can be done with a maximal overhead of O(2) in time
and O( n) in space complexity (see 3.5.2). [8]
On the other hand, as a general n-qubit quantum state consists of maxi-
mally 2n eigenstates with a non-zero amplitude and unitary transformations
take the form of linear operators and consequently can be described as
n 1
2X
n
U : |ii uij |ji with i, j Z2 , (3.3)
j=0

a classical computer can simulate any unitary operator with arbitrary preci-
sion by encoding the complex amplitudes as fixed point binary numbers. In
the general case, however, this will require an exponential overhead in time
as well as in space complexity.
Due to the stochastic nature of quantum measurements, the emulating
computer will also need a source of true randomness (like e.g. the probabilis-
tic Turing machine).

3.1.3 Hybrid Architecture

So QPLs can be regarded as a meta-programming languages, as a program
isnt intended to run on a quantum computer itself, but on a (probabilis-
tic) classical computer which in turn controls a quantum computer. In the
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 43

QCL program

classical input quantum operations

   
 

 


classical output measurement values

binary quantum
program state machine state

Figure 3.1: The hybrid architecture of QCL

terms of classical computer science, you can describe this setting as a uni-
versal computer with a quantum oracle. Figure 3.1 illustrates this hybrid
architecture.
From the perspective of the user, quantum programs behave exactly like
any other classical program, in the sense that it takes classical input such as
startup parameters or interactive data, and produces classical output. The
state of the controlling computer (i.e. program counter, variable values, but
also the mapping of quantum registers) is also strictly classical and referred
to as program state.
The actual program , i.e. the sequence of quantum instructions con-
sisting of elementary gates, measurement- and initialization-instructions is
passed over a well defined interface to the quantum computer, while the
returned output of is restricted to binary measurements values. The quan-
tum computer doesnt require any control logic, its computational state can
therefor be fully described by the common quantum state of its qubits,
also referred to as machine state.

3.2 QCL as a Classical Language

Since the computational model of QPLs is that of a classical computer with
a quantum oracle, QCL contains all features of a classical universal pro-
gramming language, such as variables, loops, subroutines and conditional
branching.
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 44

3.2.1 Structure of a QCL Program

The syntactic structure of a QCL program is described by a context free
LALR(1) grammar (see appendix A) with statements and definitions as top
symbols:

qcl-input { stmt | def }

3.2.1.1 Statements
Statements range from simple commands, over procedure-calls to complex
control-structures and are executed when they are encountered.
qcl> if random()>=0.5 { print "red"; } else { print "black"; }
: red

3.2.1.2 Definitions
Definitions are not executed but bind a value (variable- or constant-definition)
or a block of code (routine-definition) to a symbol (identifier).
qcl> int counter=5;
qcl> int fac(int n) { if n<=0 {return 1;} else {return n*fac(n-1);} }

Consequently, each symbol has an associated type, which can either be a data
type or a routine type and defines whether the symbol is accessed by reference
or call.

3.2.1.3 Expressions
Many statements and routines take arguments of certain data types. These
expressions can be composed of literals, variable references and sub-expressions
combined by operators and function calls.
qcl> print "5 out of 10:",fac(10)/fac(5)^2,"combinations."
: 5 out of 10: 252 combinations.

3.2.2 Data Types and Variables

The classic data-types of QCL are the arithmetic types int, real and
complex and the general types boolean and string.
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 45

Type Description Examples

int integer 1234, -1
real real number 3.14, -0.001
complex complex number (0,-1), (0.5, 0.866)
boolean logic value true, false
string character string "hello world", ""

Table 3.1: classic types and literals

3.2.2.1 Constants
Frequently used values can be defined as symbolic constants. The syntax of
a constant declaration is

const-def const identifier = expr ;

The definition of pi in the standard include file is e.g.

const pi=3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197;

3.2.2.2 Variables
The definition of variables in QCL is analogous to C:

var-def type identifier [ = expr ] ;

If no initial value is given, the new variable is initialized with zero, false or
"", respectively. The value of a variable can be changed by an assignment,
user input (see 3.2.4.3) and quantum measurement (see 3.4.1):
qcl> complex z; // declare complex variable z
qcl> print z; // z was initialized with 0
: (0.000000,0.000000)
qcl> z=(0,1); // setting z to i
qcl> print z;
: (0.000000,1.000000)
qcl> z=exp(z*pi); // assignment to z may contain z
qcl> print z;
: (-1.000000,0.000000)
qcl> input z; // ask for user input
? complex z [(Re,Im)] ? (0.8,0.6)
qcl> print z;
: (0.800000,0.600000)
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 46

3.2.3 Expressions
3.2.3.1 Operators
Table 3.2 shows all QCL operators ordered from high to low precedence.1
All binary operators are left associative, thus a b c = (a b) c. Explicit
grouping can be achieved by using parentheses.

Op Description Argument type

# register size quantum types
^ power all arithmetic
integer power int
- unary minus all arithmetic
* multiplication all arithmetic
/ division all arithmetic
integer division int
mod integer modulus int
+ addition all arithmetic
- subtraction all arithmetic
& concatenation string, quantum types
== equal all arithmetic, string
!= unequal all arithmetic, string
< less integer, real
<= less or equal int, real
> greater int, real
>= greater or equal int, real
not logic not boolean
and logic and boolean
or logic inclusive or boolean
xor logic exclusive or boolean

Table 3.2: QCL operators

Arithmetic operators generally work on all arithmetic data types and

return the most general type (operator overloading), e.g.
1
For the sake of completeness, table 3.2 also includes the operators # and &, which take
quantum registers as arguments, see 3.4.3.1 and 3.3.3.2
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 47

qcl> print 2+2; // evaluates to int

: 4
qcl> print 2+2.0; // evaluates to real
: 4.000000
qcl> print 2+(2,0); // evaluates to complex
: (4.000000,0.000000)
To allow for clean integer arithmetic there are two exceptions to avoid type-
casts:
The division operator / does integer division if both arguments are
integer.
The power operator ^ for integer bases is only defined for non-negative,
integer exponents. For real exponents, the base must be non-negative.

3.2.3.2 Functions
QCL expressions may also contain calls to built-in or user defined functions.
Table 3.3 shown all built-in unary arithmetic functions.
Trigonometric Funct. Hyperbolic Funct.
sin(x) sine of x sinh(x) hyperbolic sine of x
cos(x) cosine of x cosh(x) hyperbolic cosine of x
tan(x) tangent of x tanh(x) hyperbolic tangent of x
cot(x) cotangent of x coth(x) hyperbolic cotangent of x
Complex Funct. Exponential an related Funct.
Re(z) real part of z exp(x) e raised to the power of x
Im(z) imaginary part of z log(x) natural logarithm of x
abs(z) magnitude of z log(x,n) base-n logarithm of x
conj(z) conjugate of z sqrt(x) square root of x

Table 3.3: QCL arithmetic functions

In addition to the above, QCL also contains n-ary functions such as min-
imum or gcd, conversion functions and the the pseudo function random()
(table 3.4). As the latter is no function in the mathematical sense, it may
not be used within the definition of user-functions and quantum operators.

3.2.4 Simple Statements

3.2.4.1 Assignment
The value of any classic variable can be set by the assignment operator =.
The right-hand value must be of the same type as the variable. In con-
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 48

Funct. Description
ceil(x) nearest integer to x (rounded upwards)
floor(x) nearest integer to x (rounded downward)
max(x,...) maximum
min(x,...) minimum
gcd(n,...) greatest common divisor
lcm(n,...) least common multiple
random() random value from [0, 1)

Table 3.4: other QCL functions

trast to arithmetic operators and built-in functions, no implicit typecasting

is performed.
qcl> complex z;
qcl> z=pi; // no typecast
! type mismatch: invalid assignment
qcl> z=conj(pi); // implicit typecast

3.2.4.2 Call
The call of a procedure has the syntax
stmt identifier ( [ expr { , expr }] ) ;
As with assignments, no typecasting is performed for classical argument
types.
Due to the potential side-effects on the program state, procedure-call may
not occur within the definition of functions or operators.

3.2.4.3 Input
The input command prompts for user input and assigns the value to the
variable identifier . Optionally a prompt string expr can be given instead of
the standard prompt which indicates the type and the name of the variable.
qcl> real n;
qcl> input "Enter Number of iterations:",n;
? Enter Number of iterations: 1000

3.2.4.4 Output
The print command takes a comma separated list of expressions and prints
them to the console. Each output is prepended by a colon and terminated
with newline.
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 49

qcl> int i=3; real x=pi; complex z=(0,1); boolean b;

qcl> print i,x,z,b;
: 3 3.141593 (0.000000,1.000000) false

3.2.5 Flow Control

3.2.5.1 Blocks
All flow control statements operate on blocks of code. A block is a list of
statements enclosed in braces:

block { stmt { stmt } }

Blocks may only contain executable statements, no definitions. Unlike C, a

block is not a compound statement and always part of a control structure.
To avoid ambiguities with nesting, the braces are obligatory, even for single
commands.

3.2.5.2 Conditional Branching

The if and if-else statements allow for the conditional execution of blocks,
depending on the value of a boolean expression.

stmt if expr block [ else block ]

If expr evaluates to true, the if-block is executed. If expr evaluates to false,

the else-block is executed if defined.

3.2.5.3 Counting Loops

for-loops take a counter identifier of type integer which is incremented from
expr from to expr to . The loop body is executed for each value of identifier .

stmt for identifier = expr from to expr to [ step expr step ] block

Inside the body, the counter is treated as a constant.

qcl> int i;
qcl> for i=10 to 2 step -2 { print i^2; }
: 100
: 64
: 36
: 16
: 4
qcl> for i=1 to 10 { i=i^2; } // i is constant in body
! unknown symbol: Unknown variable i
When the loop is finished, identifier is set to expr to .
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 50

3.2.5.4 Conditional Loops

QCL supports two types of conditional loops:
stmt while expr block
block until expr ;
A while-loop is iterated as long as a the condition expr is satisfied. When
expr evaluates to false, the loop terminates. An until-loop is executed at
least once and iterated until the condition expr is satisfied.

3.2.6 Classical Subroutines

3.2.6.1 Functions
User defined functions may be of any classical type and may take an arbitrary
number of classical parameters. The value of the function is passed to the
invoking expression by the return statement. Local variables can be defined
at the top of the function body.
int Fibonacci(int n) { // calculate the n-th
int i; // Fibonacci number
int f; // by iteration
for i = 1 to n {
f = 2*f+i;
}
return f;
}
QCL requires functions to have mathematical semantics, so their value
has to be deterministic and their execution must not have any side-effects on
the program state.
qcl> int randint(int n) { return floor(n*random()); }
! in function randint: illegal scope: function random is not allowed
in this scope
qcl> int foo=4711;
qcl> int bar(int n) { foo=foo+n; return foo; }
! in function bar: unknown symbol: Unknown local variable foo
Functions can call other functions within their body. Recursive calls are
also allowed.
int fac(int n) { // calculate n!
if n<2 { // by recursion
return 1;
} else {
return n*fac(n-1);
}
}
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 51

3.2.6.2 Procedures
Procedures are the most general routine type and used to implement the
classical control structures of quantum algorithms which generally involve
evaluation loops, the choice of applied operators, the interpretation of mea-
surements and classical probabilistic elements.
With the exception of routine declarations, procedures allow the same
operations as are available in global scope (e.g. at the shell prompt) allowing
arbitrary changes to both the program and the machine state. Operations
exclusive to procedures are

Access to global variables

(Pseudo) Random numbers by using the pseudo-function random()

Non-unitary operations on the machine state by using the reset and

measure commands (see 3.4.1)

User input by using the input command (see 3.2.4.3)

Procedures can take any number of classical or quantum arguments and may
call all types of subroutines.

3.3 Quantum States and Variables

3.3.1 Quantum Memory Management
3.3.1.1 Machine State and Program State
The memory of a quantum computer is usually a combination of 2-state
subsystems, referred to as quantum bits (qubits). As pointed out in 2.2.1.3
the memory content is the combined state |i of all qubits. This state is
referred to as the (quantum) machine state as opposed to the program state
which is the current state of the controlling (classic) algorithm (e.g. contents
of variable, execution stack, etc.) described by the QCL program.
The machine state |i of an n qubit quantum computer is a vector in the
n
Hilbert space H = C2 , however due to the destructive nature of mea-
surement (see 1.3.2.3) |i cannot be directly observed and consequently
isnt accessible from within QCL.
Due to the current lack of real-live quantum computers, the interpreter
qcl contains the emulation library libqc which can simulate a quantum
computer with an arbitrary number of qubits. It also provides an interface to
access the simulated machine state via the load, save and dump commands
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 52

(see 3.3.1.6). These commands, however dont interfere with the program
state.

3.3.1.2 Quantum Registers

QCL uses the concept of quantum registers (see 2.2.1.5) as an interface be-
tween the machine state and the controlling classical computer. A quantum
register is a pointer to a sequence of (mutually different) qubits and thus,
while referring to a quantum subsystem, is still a classical variable.
All operations on the machine state (except for the reset command,
see 3.4.1) take quantum registers as operands. Since an n qubit quantum
n!
computer allows for (nm)! different m qubit registers s Zm
n , any unitary or
n!
measurement operation on a m qubit register, can result in (nm)! different
operations on the machine state: This requires that all elementary unitary
operations of the quantum computer to be applicable to arbitrary qubits and
requires the physical architecture to allow the measurement of single qubits.2

3.3.1.3 The Quantum Heap

In QCL, the relation between registers and qubits is handled transparently by
allocation and deallocation of qubits from the quantum heap, which allows the
use of local quantum variables. All free (i.e. unallocated) quantum memory
has to be empty.

Definition 9 (Empty Registers) A quantum register s is empty iff

P0 (s) |i = |i with P0 = |0ih0| (3.4)

At startup or after the reset command, the whole machine state is empty,
thus |i = |0i.
The machine state of an n-qubit quantum computer with m allocated
qubits therefor is a product state of the form

|i = |is |0is with s Zm

n and s Znnm (3.5)

As has been pointed out in 1.3.3.2, two quantum systems whose common
wave function is a product state are physically independent. This esp. means
that neither measurements nor unitary transformations on the allocated bits
s will affect s being in substate |0i.
The concept of the quantum heap allows two important abstractions:
2
Since the operators Ni for the value of the qubits commute (i.e
n [Ni , nj ] = 0), the
number of physically different measurement operations is merely m as the additional
bit-permutations are in fact classical operations.
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 53

Since the allocation of registers is transparent, no qubit positions need

to be specified.

Since allocated and unallocated qubits are in a product state, the defi-
nition of quantum algorithms is independent from the total number of
qubits.

3.3.1.4 Register allocation

Quantum registers are allocated, when a quantum variable is defined. The
qubit positions for each register can be inspected using the print statement.
$ qcl -b10 # start qcl-interpreter with 10 qubits
qcl> qureg a[4]; // allocate a 4-qubit register
qcl> qureg b[3]; // allocate another 3-qubit register
qcl> print a,b; // show actual qubit mappings
: |......3210> |...210....>
qcl> qureg c[5]; // try to allocate another 5 qubits
! memory error: not enough quantum memory

In QCL, the quantum heap is organized as a stack: qubits are pushed on

allocation and poped on deallocation. A quantum register is deallocated,
when the scope of the variable is left.
qcl> qureg a[3]; // allocate 3 qubits
qcl> procedure foo() { qureg b[2]; print a,b; }
qcl> foo(); // temp. register b gets allocated
: |.......210> |.....10...>
qcl> qureg c[3]; // allocate another 3 qubits
qcl> print a,c; // qubits from b have been reclaimed
: |.......210> |....210...>

3.3.1.5 Scratch Space Management

If temporary registers are used, then, in order to avoid the corruption of
the quantum heap, it has to be assured that the register is empty befor
it is deallocated. Quantum functions (see 2.2.2.5) allow the declaration of
local quantum variables as scratch space (see 3.3.1.5), in which case the
uncomputing of the temporary registers is transparently taken care of by
using the following procedure suggested by Bennet: [8]
Let F be a quantum function with the argument register x (type quconst,
see 3.3.2.2), the target register y (type quvoid, see 3.3.2.3) and the scratch
register s (type quscratch, see 3.3.2.4)

F (x, y, s) : |iix |0iy |0is |iix |f (i)iy |j(i)is (3.6)

CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 54

During the application of F , the register s is filled with the temporary junk
bits j(i). To reclaim s, QCL allocates an auxiliary register t and translates
F into an operator F 0 which is defined as

F 0 (x, y, s, t) = F (x, t, s) Fanout(t, y) F (x, t, s) (3.7)

The fanout operator is a quantum function defined as

Fanout : |ii|0i |ii|ii (3.8)

The application of F 0 restores the scratch register s and the auxiliary register
a to |0i while preserving the function value in the target register t:

|i, 0, 0, 0i |i, 0, j(i), f (i)i |i, f (i), j(i), f (i)i |i, f (i), 0, 0i (3.9)

3.3.1.6 Simulation
The interpreter qcl can simulate quantum computers with arbitrary numbers
of qubits. According to the hybrid architecture as introduced in 3.1.3, the
numerical simulations are handled by a library (libqc) to separate the clas-
sical program state from the quantum machine state. QCL provides special
commands for inspecting the simulated machine state.
The dump command prints the current machine state in Braket notation.
When a quantum expression is given, it prints the probability spectrum in-
stead.
qcl> qureg q[2];
qcl> Mix(q);
qcl> dump;
: STATE: 2 / 4 qubits allocated, 2 / 4 qubits free
0.5 |0000> + 0.5 |0010> + 0.5 |0001> + 0.5 |0011>
qcl> dump q[0];
: SPECTRUM q[0]: |...0>
0.5 |0> + 0.5 |1>

The current machine-state can be loaded and saved with the load and save
command.

3.3.2 Quantum Variables

Quantum registers bound to a symbolic name are referred to as quantum
variables.
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 55

3.3.2.1 General Registers

A general quantum Register with n = expr qubits can be declared with
var-def qureg identifier [ expr ] ;
Empty quantum memory is allocated from the heap and bound to the symbol
identifier .
A global declaration defines a permanent quantum register which is not
to prone to scratch space management. This means that as with classic
global variables there is no way to reclaim allocated qubits within the
same scope.
The reseting of the machine state with the reset command has no effect
on register bindings.
[0/4] 1 |0000>
qcl> qureg q[1]; // allocate a qubit
qcl> reset; // reset: |Psi> -> |0>
[1/4] 1 |0000>
qcl> list q; // register q still exists
: global symbol q = |...0>:
qureg q[1];
The quantum types quvoid and quscratch are restricted to pseudo-classic
operators (qufunct) and are equivalent to qureg, except that they are treated
differently by memory management (see 3.3.1.5 for details).

3.3.2.2 Quantum Constants

Registers can be declared constant, by using the register type quconst. A
quantum constant has to be invariant to all applied operators.
Definition 10 (Invariance of Registers) A quantum register c is consid-
ered invariant to a register operator U (s, c) if U meets the condition
U : |i, ji = |iis |jic (Uj |iis ) |jic (3.10)
P
Quantum constants have a fixed probability spectrum: Let |i = aij |i, ji
be the machine state and |0 i = U (s, c) |i and p(J) and p0 (J) the proba-
bilities to measure J in register c before and after the operator is applied,
then
X X
p(J) = h|PJ |i = aiJ aiJ with PJ = |k, Jihk, J| (3.11)
i k
p0 (J) = h0 |PJ |0 i = h|U PJ U |i = (3.12)
X
= ai0 j 0 aij (hi0 |s Uj0 hj 0 |c ) PJ (Uj |iis |jic ) =
i0 ,j 0 ,i,j
X
= ai0 J aiJ hi|UJ UJ |ii = p(J)
i0 ,i
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 56

If an argument to an operator is declared as quconst, the register has to be

invariant to all subsequent operator calls within the operator definition.
qcl> operator foo(quconst c) { Rot(pi,c); }
! in operator foo: parameter mismatch: quconst used as non-const
argument to Rot
When used as an argument type to a quantum function, constant registers
arent swapped out when local scratch registers are uncomputed (see 3.3.1.5).

3.3.2.3 Empty Registers

If an argument v to an operator is declared quvoid, the quantum register
is expected to be empty when the operator is called normally, or to be un-
computed if the operator is called inverted (see 3.4.3.2). So, depending on
the adjungation flag of the operator, the machine state |i has to conform
to either

U (v, . . .) : |i = |0iv |i |0 i or U (v, . . .) : |i |0iv | 0 i (3.13)

This can be checked at runtime with simulator the option --check.

qcl> qureg q[4];
qcl> qureg p[4];
qcl> set check 1; // turn on consistency checking
qcl> Rot(pi/100,p[2]); // slightly rotate one target qubit
[8/8] 0.999877 |00000000> + -0.0157073 |01000000>
qcl> Fanout(q,p); // p is assumed void
! in qufunct Fanout: memory error: void or scratch register not empty
When used as an argument type to a quantum function, void registers are
swapped out to a temporary register if local scratch registers are uncomputed.

3.3.2.4 Scratch Registers

As an argument s to an operator, registers of type quscratch are considered
to be explicit scratch registers which have to be empty when the operator
is called and have to get uncomputed before the operator terminates, so
operator and machine state have to satisfy the condition

U (s, . . .) : |i = |0is |i |0is | 0 i = |0 i (3.14)

If a scratch register is defined within the body of a quantum function, Ben-

nets method of uncomputing temporary registers (see 3.3.1.5) is used to
free the register again.
Quantum functions using local scratch registers may not take general
(qureg) registers as arguments.
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 57

qcl> qufunct nop(qureg q) { quscratch s[1]; }

! invalid type: local scratch registers cant be used with
qureg arguments

3.3.2.5 Register References

To conveniently address subregisters or combined registers (see below), quan-
tum expressions can be named by declaring a register reference.

def type identifier [ = expr ] ;

The quantum expression expr is bound to the register identifier of the quan-
tum type type which can be qureg or quconst.
qcl> qureg q[8];
qcl> qureg oddbits=q[1]&q[3]&q[5]&q[7];
qcl> qureg lowbits=q[0:3];
qcl> list q,oddbits,lowbits;
: global symbol q = |........76543210>:
qureg q[8];
: global symbol oddbits = |........3.2.1.0.>:
qureg oddbits;
: global symbol lowbits = |............3210>:
qureg lowbits;

References can also be used to override type-checking by redeclaring a quconst

as qureg, which can be useful if a constant argument should be temporarily
used as scratch space but is restored later.

3.3.3 Quantum Expressions

A quantum expression is an anonymous register reference, which can be used
as an operator argument or to declare named references (see above).

Expr. Description Register

a reference ha0 , a1 . . . an i
a[i] qubit hai i
a[i:j] substring hai , ai+1 . . . aj i
a[i\l] substring hai , ai+1 . . . ai+l1 i
a&b concatenation ha0 , a1 . . . an , b0 , b1 . . . bm i

Table 3.5: quantum expressions

CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 58

3.3.3.1 Subregisters
Subregisters can be addressed with the subscript operator [. . .]. Depending
on the syntax (see table 3.5), single qubits are specified by their zero-based
offset and substrings are specified by the offset of the first qubit and either
the offset of the last qubit (syntax [:]) or the total length of the subregister
(syntax [\]).
qcl> qureg q[8];
qcl> print q[3],q[3:4],q[3\4];
: |....0...> |...10...> |.3210...>
Indices can be arbitrary expressions of type int. Invalid subscripts trigger
an error.
qcl> int i=255;
qcl> print q[floor(log(i,2))];
: |0.......>
qcl> print q[floor(log(i,2))\2];
! range error: invalid quantum subregister

3.3.3.2 Combined Registers

Registers can be combined with the concatenation operator &. If the registers
overlap, an error is triggered.
qcl> print q[4:7]&q[0:3];
: |32107654>
qcl> print q[2]&q[0:3];
! range error: quantum registers overlap

3.4 Quantum Operations

3.4.1 Non-unitary Operations
As pointed out in 3.1.3, any quantum computation must be a composition of
initializations, unitary operators and measurements. A typical probabilistic
quantum algorithm usually runs an evaluation loop like this:
{
reset; // R: |Psi> -> |0>
myoperator(q); // U: |0> -> |Psi>
measure q,m; // M: |Psi> -> |m>
} until ok(m); // picked the right m ?
The reset command resets the machine-state |i to |0i, which is also
the initial state when qcl is started. The quantum heap and the binding of
quantum variables are unaffected.
stmt measure expr [ , identifier ] ;
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 59

The measure command measures the quantum register expr and assigns the
measured bit-string to the int variable identifier . If no variable is given,
the value is discarded.
The outcome of the measurement is determined by a random number
generator, which by default is initialized with the current system time.
For reproducible behavior of the simulation, a seed value can be given with
the option --seed.
Since reset and measure operations are irreversible, they must not occur
within operator definitions.

3.4.2 Subroutines
3.4.2.1 Hierarchy of Subroutines
Besides the classical subroutine type procedure and function, QCL pro-
vides two quantum routine types for general unitary operators (operator)
and pseudo-classic operators (qufunct). QCL allows to invert operators and
can perform scratch-space management for quantum functions, thus allowed
side effects on the classical program state as well as on the quantum machine
state have to be strictly specified.

routine type program state machine state recursion

procedure all all yes
operator none unitary no
qufunct none pseudo-classic no
functions none none yes

Table 3.6: hierarchy of QCL Subroutines and allowed side-effects

The 4 QCL routine types form a call hierarchy, which means that a routine
may invoke only subroutines of the same or a lower level (see table 3.6).
The mathematical semantic of QCL operators and functions requires that
every call is reproducible. This means, that not only the program state must
not be changed by these routines, but also that their execution may in no way
depend on the global program state which includes global variables, options
and the state of the internal random number generator.

3.4.2.2 External Routines

While QCL incorporates a classical programming language, to provides all
the necessary means to change the program state, there is no hardwired set
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 60

of elementary operators to manipulate the quantum machine state, since this

would require assumptions about the architecture of the simulated quantum
computer.
An elementary operator or qufunct can be incorporated by declaring it
as extern.

def extern operator identifier arg-list ;

extern qufunct identifier arg-list ;

External operators have no body since they are not executed within QCL,
but merely serve as a hook for a binary function which implements the de-
sired operation directly by using the numeric QC-library and is linked to the
interpreter.
Section 3.4.4 and 3.4.7 describe the elementary unitary and pseudo classic
gates which are provided by the integrated simulator of qcl.

3.4.3 General Operators

The routine type operator is used for general unitary operators. Conforming
to the mathematical notion of an operator, a call with the same parameters
has to result in exactly the same transformation, so no global variable refer-
ences, random elements or dependencies on input are allowed.
Since the type operator is restricted to reversible transformations of the
machine state, reset and measure commands are also forbidden.

3.4.3.1 Operator Arguments

Operators work on one or more quantum registers so a call of an m qubit
n!
operator with a total quantum heap of n qubits can result in (nm)! different
unitary transformations.
In QCL, this polymorphism is even further extended by the fact, that
quantum registers can be of different sizes, so for every quantum parameter
s, the register size #s = |s| is an implicit extra parameter of type int. An
addition to that, operators can take an arbitrary number of explicit classical
arguments.
If more than one argument register is given, their qubits may not overlap.
qcl> qureg q[4];
qcl> qureg p=q[2:3];
qcl> CNot(q[1\2],p);
! runtime error: quantum arguments overlapping
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 61

3.4.3.2 Inverse Operators

Operator calls can be inverted by the adjungation prefix !. The adjoint
operator to a composition of unitary operators is3
n ! 1
Y Y
Ui = Ui (3.15)
i=1 i=n

Since the sequence of applied suboperators is specified using a procedural

classical language which cannot be executed in reverse, the inversion of the
composition, is is achieved by the delayed execution of operator calls.
When the adjungation flag is set, the operator body is executed and all
calls of suboperators are pushed on a stack which is then processed in reverse
order with inverted adjungation flags.

3.4.3.3 Local Registers

As opposed to pseudo-classic operators, it is in general impossible to uncom-
pute a unitary operator in order to free a local register again without also
destroying the intended result of the computation. This is a fundamental
limitation of QC known as the non cloning theorem which results from the
fact that a cloning operation i.e. a transformation with meets the condition

U : |i|0i |i|i (3.16)

for an arbitrary4 |i cannot be unitary if |i is a composed state because

U (a|0, 0i + b|1, 0i) = a2 |0, 0i + ab |0, 1i + ba |1, 0i) + b2 |1, 1i (3.17)

6= a U |0, 0i + b U |1, 0i = a2 |0, 0i + b2 |1, 1i (3.18)

U can only be unitary if |i is in a pure state, i.e. |i = |ii, in which case

U = Fanout.
Due to the lack of a unitary copy operation for quantum states, Bennet-
style scratch space management is impossible for general operators since it
is based on cloning the result register.
Despite this limitation, it is possible in QCL to allocate temporary quan-
tum registers but it is up to the programmer to properly uncompute them
again. If the option --check is set, proper cleanup is verified by the simula-
tor.
3
Qn To avoid ambiguities with non-commutative matrix products, we use the convention
i=1 fi = fn fn1 . . . f1
4
For any particular
P |i an infinite number of unitary cloning operators trivially exists,
as e.g. U = i,j,k |i, j kihk|ihi, j|
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 62

qcl> set check 1

qcl> operator foo(qureg q) { qureg p[1]; CNot(p,q); }
qcl> qureg q[1];
qcl> Mix(q);
[1/4] 0.707107 |0000> + 0.707107 |0001>
qcl> foo(q);
! in operator foo: memory error: quantum heap is corrupted
[1/4] 0.707107 |0000> + 0.707107 |0011>

Local registers are useful if an operator contains some intermediary pseudo-

classic operations which require scratch space.

3.4.4 Unitary Gates

3.4.4.1 Unitary Matrices
The most general form for specifying a unitary operator (or any other linear
transformation) is by defining its matrix elements: An n qubit unitary oper-
n n
ator U describes a transformation U : C2 C2 and therefore corresponds
to a 2n 2n matrix in C

2n
u0,0 u0,2n 1
X .. ..
U= |iiuij hj| = ... (3.19)
. .
i,j=0
u2n 1,0 u2n 1,2n 1

Since for a unitary transformation U U = (U )T U = I(n), the Matrix U

unitary if and only if
2n
^
n 1
1 2X
uki ukj = ij (3.20)
i,j=0 k=0

QCL provides external operators for general unitary 2 2, 4 4 and 8 8

matrices, which the programmer can use to directly implement a custom set
of 1, 2 and 3 qubit gates.
extern operator Matrix2x2(
complex u00,complex u01,
complex u10,complex u11,
qureg q);
extern operator Matrix4x4(...,qureg q);
extern operator Matrix8x8(...,qureg q);

Matrix operators are checked for unitarity before they are applied:
qcl> const i=(0,1);
qcl> qureg q[1];
qcl> Matrix2x2(i*cos(pi/6),i*sin(pi/6),(0,0),(1,0),q);
! external error: matrix operator is not unitary
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 63

3.4.4.2 Qubit Rotation

The rotation of a single qubit is defined by the transformation matrix U ()
!
cos 2 sin 2
U () = (3.21)
sin 2 cos 2
The factor 12 to is set in analogy to spin rotations, which can be shown
i
to be of the form D = e 2 j j and thus have a period of 4.
extern operator Rot(real theta,qureg q);
In contrast to most other external Operators, Rot is not generalized to work
with arbitrary register sizes.
qcl> Rot(pi/2,q);
! external error: Only single qubits can be rotated

3.4.4.3 Hadamard Gate

The Hadamard Gate is a special case of a generalized qubit Rotation and
defined by the transformation matrix H
!
1 1 1
H= (3.22)
2 1 1
For the case of n-qubit registers, H can be generalized to
n X
H : |ii 2 2 (1)(i,j) |ji (3.23)
jBn

The vectors B 0 = {i Bn | |i0 i = H |ii} form the Hadamard base or dual base
or parity base to B = {i Bn | |ii}.
The Hadamard Transformation is self adjoint (i.e. H = H), which, for
unitary operators, implies that H 2 = I.
Since B 0 only contains uniform superpositions that just differ by the signs
of the base-vectors, the external implementation of H is called Mix.
extern operator Mix(qureg q);

3.4.4.4 Conditional Phase Gate

The conditional phase gate is a pathological case of a conditional operator
(see 2.2.2.6), for the zero-qubit phase operator ei .
(
ei |i if = 111 . . .
V () : |i (3.24)
|i otherwise
The conditional phase gate is used in the quantum Fourier transform (see
4.2.3).
extern operator CPhase(real phi,qureg q);
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 64

3.4.5 Pseudo-classic Operators

The routine type qufunct is used for pseudo-classic operators and quantum
functions, so all transformations have to be of the form
X X
|i = ci |ii ci ji |ji = |0 i (3.25)
i i,j

with some permutation . All n-qubit pseudo-classic operators F therefore

have the common eigenstate
n 1
2X
n
|i = 2 2 |ii F |i = |i (3.26)
i=0

3.4.5.1 Bijective Functions

The most straightforward application for pseudo-classic operators is the di-
rect implementation of bijective functions (see 2.2.2.4)
qufunct inc(qureg x) {
int i;
for i = #x-1 to 1 {
CNot(x[i],x[0:i-1]);
}
Not(x[0]);
}
The operator inc shifts the base-vectors of its argument. In analogy to boson
states, where the increment of the eigenstate corresponds to the generation
of a particle, inc is a creation operator.5
qcl> qureg q[4];
qcl> inc(q);
[4/4] 1 |0001>
qcl> inc(q);
[4/4] 1 |0010>
qcl> inc(q);
[4/4] 1 |0011>
qcl> inc(q);
[4/4] 1 |0100>

3.4.5.2 Conditional Operators

When it comes to more complicated arithmetic operations, it is often required
to apply a transformation to a register a in dependence on the content of
another register e.
5
In fact, this is not quite correct, since other than bosons, an n qubit register is limited
to 2n states, so inc |2n 1i = |0i whereas a |2n 1i = |2n i
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 65

If all qubits of e are required to be set, for the transformation to take

place, the operator is a conditional operator with the invariant (quconst)
enable register e (see 2.2.2.6).
A simple example for a conditional operator is the Toffoli gate

T : |x, y, zi |x (y z), y, zi (3.27)

or its generalization, the controlled not gate (see 3.4.7.4). A conditional

version of the above increment operator is also easy to implement:
qufunct cinc(qureg x,quconst e) {
int i;
for i = #x-1 to 1 step -1 {
CNot(x[i],x[0:i-1] & e);
}
CNot(x[0],e);
}

Now, only base-vectors of the form |ii|11 . . .is are incremented:

qcl> qureg q[4]; qureg e[2]; Mix(e);
[6/6] 0.5 |000000> + 0.5 |100000> + 0.5 |010000> + 0.5 |110000>
qcl> cinc(q,e);
[6/6] 0.5 |000000> + 0.5 |100000> + 0.5 |010000> + 0.5 |110001>
qcl> cinc(q,e);
[6/6] 0.5 |000000> + 0.5 |100000> + 0.5 |010000> + 0.5 |110010>
qcl> cinc(q,e);
[6/6] 0.5 |000000> + 0.5 |100000> + 0.5 |010000> + 0.5 |110011>

3.4.6 Quantum Functions

As defined in 2.2.2.5, a quantum function F is a pseudo-classic operator with
the characteristic

F : |xix |0iy |xix |f (x)iy with f : Bn Bm (3.28)

If we require the argument register x to nbe invariant to F by declaring x as

quconst, this leaves us with ((2m 1)!)2 possible pseudo-classic implemen-
tations of F for any given f . To reflect the fact that F |x, y 6= 0i is undefined,
the target register has to be of type quvoid. (see 3.3.2.3).
Since, according to the above definition, quantum functions are merely
ordinary pseudo-classic operators, whose specification is restricted to certain
types of input states, they also use the same QCL routine type qufunct.
The following example calculates the parity of x and stores it to y:
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 66

qufunct parity(quconst x,quvoid y) {

int i;
for i = 0 to #x-1 {
CNot(y,x[i]);
}
}

qcl> qureg x[2]; qureg y[1]; Mix(x);

[3/3] 0.5 |000> + 0.5 |010> + 0.5 |001> + 0.5 |011>
qcl> parity(x,y);
[3/3] 0.5 |000> + 0.5 |110> + 0.5 |101> + 0.5 |011>

3.4.6.1 Scratch parameters

We can extend the notion of quantum functions, by also allowing an explicit
scratch register s (see 3.3.2.4) as an optional parameter to F , so we end up
with an operator F (x, y, s) with the characteristic
F : |xix |0iy |0is |xix |f (x)iy |0is (3.29)
Using the parity and the cinc operator form the above examples, we can
implement an add parity function f (x) = x + parity(x) by providing a
scratch qubit:
qufunct addparity(quconst x,quvoid y,quscratch s) {
parity(x,s); // write parity to scratch
x -> y; // Fanout x to y
cinc(y,s); // increment y if parity is odd
parity(x,s); // clear scratch
}

qcl2> qureg x[2]; qureg y[2]; qureg s[1]; Mix(x);

[5/8] 0.5 |00000> + 0.5 |00010> + 0.5 |00001> + 0.5 |00011>
qcl2> addparity(x,y,s);
[5/8] 0.5 |00000> + 0.5 |01110> + 0.5 |01001> + 0.5 |01111>
Instead of providing a explicit scratch parameter, we can, of course, also use
a local register of type qureg, which is functionally equivalent:
qufunct addparity2(quconst x,quvoid y) {
qureg s[1];
parity(x,s);
x -> y;
cinc(y,s);
parity(x,s);
}

qcl2> qureg x[2]; qureg y[2]; Mix(x);

[4/8] 0.5 |00000> + 0.5 |00010> + 0.5 |00001> + 0.5 |00011>
qcl2> addparity2(x,y);
[4/8] 0.5 |00000> + 0.5 |01110> + 0.5 |01001> + 0.5 |01111>
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 67

Explicit scratch parameters are useful to save memory, if a quantum function

F is to be used by another operator U , which still has empty scratch registers
at the moment, the suboperator is called, which would e.g. be the case if U
is of the form
l !
Y
U (x, y, s, . . .) = Ui (x, y, s, . . .) F (x, y, s) U1 (x, y, . . .) (3.30)
i=2

Since both, explicit scratch parameters of type quscratch and local registers
of type qureg, have to be uncomputed manually, they are especially useful
for quantum functions U : |x, 0, 0i |x, f (s(x), x), 0i of the form

U (x, y, s) = S(x, s)F (x, s, y)S (x, s) (3.31)

if S is invariant to x and F is invariant to x and s, because the uncomputation

of s doesnt require an additional register to temporarily save y (see 3.3.1.5)
as would be the case, if a managed local scratch register of type quscratch
would be used instead (see below).

3.4.7 Pseudo-classic Gates

3.4.7.1 Base Permutation
The most general form for specifying an n qubit pseudo-classic operator U ,
is by explicitly defining the underlying permutation of base-vectors:
n 1
2X
Upc. = |i ihi| = h0 , 1 . . . 2n 1 i (3.32)
i=0

QCL provides external operators for vector permutations for || = 2, 4, 8,

16, 32 and 64 which the programmer can use to directly implement a custom
set of 1 to 6 qubit pseudo-classical operators:
extern qufunct Perm2(int p0 ,int p1 ,qureg q);
extern qufunct Perm4(int p0 ,int p1 ,int p2 ,int p3 ,qureg q);
extern qufunct Perm8(...,qureg q);
extern qufunct Perm16(...,qureg q);
extern qufunct Perm32(...,qureg q);
extern qufunct Perm64(...,qureg q);

Base permutations are checked for unitarity before they are applied (i.e. it
is verified that the given integer sequence is in fact a permutation)
qcl> qureg q[3];
qcl> Perm8(0,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,q);
! external error: no permutation
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 68

3.4.7.2 Fanout
The Fanout operation is a quantum function (see 2.2.2.5) and stands for a
class of transformations with the characteristic Fanout : |x, 0i |x, xi
The external fanout operator of QCL is defined as

Fanout : |x, yi |x, x yi, (3.33)

however, it is considered bad programming style to rely on this particular

implementation.
extern qufunct Fanout(quconst a,quvoid b);

QCL also provides the special syntax a->b and a<-b as abbreviations for
Fanout(a,b) and !Fanout(a,b).

3.4.7.3 Swap
The Swap operator exchanges the qubits of two equal sized registers (Swap :
|x, yi |y, xi). A one to one qubit Swap operator has the transformation
matrix
1 0 0 0
0 0 1 0

Swap = (3.34)
0 1 0 0
0 0 0 1
extern qufunct Swap(qureg a,qureg b);

As with the fanout operator, a<->b is syntactic sugar for Swap(a,b).

3.4.7.4 Not and Controlled Not

The not operator C inverts a qubit. Its transformation matrix is
!
0 1
C= (3.35)
1 0

The controlled-not operator C[[e]] is the conditional operator (see 2.2.2.6) to

C with the enable register e:
(
|1 bi |ie if = 111 . . .
C[[e]] : |bi|ie (3.36)
|bi|ie otherwise

extern qufunct Not(qureg q);

extern qufunct CNot(qureg q,quconst c);
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 69

The QCL versions of Not and CNot also work on target registers, in which
case C[[e]] is applied to all qubits:
qcl> qureg q[4]; qureg p[4];
qcl> Not(q);
[8/8] 1 |00001111>
qcl> CNot(p,q);
[8/8] 1 |11111111>

3.5 Programming Techniques

3.5.1 Design of Quantum Algorithms
As has been shown in 3.1.2, quantum computers and probabilistic classical
computers are computationally equivalent, but for certain tasks, quantum
algorithms can provide a more efficient solution than classical implementa-
tions.
In order to achieve any speedup over classical algorithms, it is necessary
to take advantage of the unique features of quantum computing namely
Superpositioning
Quantum Parallelism
Interference

3.5.1.1 Superpositioning
A key element in any universal programming language is conditional branch-
ing. Any classical program can be modeled as a decision tree where each
node corresponds to a binary state sn and leads to one or more successor
(i)
states sn+1 . On a deterministic Turing machine (TM), only one of those
(k)
transitions sn sn+1 is possible, so the computational path hs0 , s1 , . . . sn i is
predetermined.
On a probabilistic TM, the transitions are characterized by probabilities
P (i)
pi with i pi = 1 and one of the possible successor states sn+1 is chosen
accordingly at random.
Since the eigenvectors |ii directly correspond to classical binary states,
we might interpret a unitary transformation
X
U : |si uss0 |s0 i with s, s0 Bn and uss0 C (3.37)
s0

as a probabilistic transition form the classical state s to the successor states

s0 with the transition probabilities ps0 = |uss0 |2 , but unless we perform a
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 70

measurement, the resulting machine state remains in a superposition of all

possible classical successor states
U X (i)
|i = |sn i |0 i = usn s(i) |sn+1 i (3.38)
n+1
i

So from a classical point of view, we can consider a unitary operator which

transforms an eigenstate into a superposition of n eigenstates with nonzero
amplitudes as a 1n fork-operation, which enables a quantum computer to
follow several classical computational paths at once.
Most non-classical algorithms take advantage of this feature by bringing
a register into a even superposition of eigenstates to serve as search space.
This can be achieved by applying the Hadamard transformation (see 3.4.4.3)
to each qubit
[0/4] 1 |0000>
qcl> qureg q[2]; // allocate 2-qubit register
qcl> Mix(q[0]); // rotate first qubit
[2/4] 0.707107 |0000> + 0.707107 |0001>
qcl> Mix(q[1]); // rotate second qubit
[2/4] 0.5 |0000> + 0.5 |0010> + 0.5 |0001> + 0.5 |0011>

Classically, this can be viewed as a binary decision tree with a 50% chance
for each bit to flip. For an n-qubit register, this leads to 2n classical compu-
tational paths all of which are followed simultaneously resulting in a super-
position of 2n eigenvectors.
Since the Hadamard transforms for each single qubit commute, we can
a-posteriori emulate classic probabilistic behavior by performing a measure-
ment on the single qubits; thereby, the temporal order of the measurements is
unimportant so we can force a decision on the second qubit before we decide
on the the first and reconstruct the classical computational path in reverse
qcl> measure q[1]; // second qubits gives 0
[2/4] 0.707107 |0000> + 0.707107 |0001>
qcl> measure q[0]; // first qubit gives 1
[2/4] 1 |0001>

3.5.1.2 Quantum Parallelism

If we restrict unitary transformations to pseudo-classic operators (see 2.2.2.4)
then the classical decision tree degenerates into a list and we end up with the
functionality of a classical reversible computer i.e. for any bijective binary
function f there is a corresponding pseudo-classic operator

Uf : |si |f (s)i with s Bn and f : Bn Bn (3.39)

CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 71

The restriction to bijective functions is not a severe as it seems, since for any
general binary function g a corresponding quantum function

Ug : |s, 0i |s, g(s)i with s Bn and f : Bn Bn (3.40)

can be constructed, which implements g with a maximum overhead of O( n)
in space- and O(2) time-complexity, so besides this minor performance penalty,
a quantum computer with only pseudo-classic operators is functionally equiv-
alent to a deterministic classical computer.
However, if we use a quantum function on an superposition of eigenstates,
the same classical computation is performed on all bit-strings simultaneously.
X Ug X
|i = |s, 0i |0 i = |s, g(s)i (3.41)
s s

In classical terms, this can be described as a SIMD (single instruction, mul-

tiple date) vector operation, in quantum terms this feature is referred to as
quantum parallelism.
As an example, lets consider a full binary adder

ADD(a, b, s) : |aia |bib |0is |aia |bib |a + bis (3.42)

Using the controlled-not operator C[[e]] (see 3.4.7.4), this can be implemented
as

ADD(a, b, s) = C[[ab]] (s1 ) C[[b]] (s0 ) C[[a]] (s0 ) with s = s0 s1 (3.43)

If we put the argument qubits a and b into an even superposition of |0i and
|1i, then we can perform the addition on all possible combinations of inputs
simultaneously:
qcl> qureg a[1]; // argument a
qcl> qureg b[1]; // argument b
qcl> qureg s[2]; // target register s=a+b
qcl> Mix(a & b); // bring arguments into superposition
[4/4] 0.5 |0000> + 0.5 |0010> + 0.5 |0001> + 0.5 |0011>
qcl> CNot(s[0],a); // calculate low bit of sum
[4/4] 0.5 |0000> + 0.5 |0010> + 0.5 |0101> + 0.5 |0111>
qcl> CNot(s[0],b);
[4/4] 0.5 |0000> + 0.5 |0110> + 0.5 |0101> + 0.5 |0011>
qcl> CNot(s[1],a & b); // calculate high bit of sum
[4/4] 0.5 |0000> + 0.5 |0110> + 0.5 |0101> + 0.5 |1011>
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 72

3.5.1.3 Interference
While superpositioning and quantum parallelism allow us to perform an ex-
ponentially large number of classical computations in parallel, the only way
to read out any results is by performing a measurement whereby all but one
of the superpositioned eigenstates get discarded. Since it doesnt make any
difference if the computational path is determined during the calculation (as
with the probabilistic TM) or a-posteriori (by quantum measurement), the
use of quantum computers wouldnt provide any advantage over probabilistic
classical computers.
Quantum states, however, are not merely a probability distribution of
binary values but are vectors i.e. each eigenstate in a superposition isnt
characterized by a real probability, but a complex amplitude, so
1 1
|1 i = (|0i + |1i) and |2 i = (|0i |1i) (3.44)
2 2
describe different states, even if they have the same probability spectrum.
So, while on a probabilistic TM, the probabilities of two different com-
putational paths leading to the same final state s simply add up, this is not
necessarily the case on a quantum computer since generally

| + |2 6= ||2 + ||2 for , C (3.45)

To illustrate this concept, consider the three states

1
|1 i = |0i, |2 i = |1i and |3 i = (|0i + |1i) (3.46)
2
If we apply the Hadamard-transform H (see 3.4.4.3) to the eigenstates |1 i
and |2 i we get
1 1
|10 i = H |1 i = (|0i + |1i) and |20 i = H |2 i = (|0i |1i) (3.47)
2 2
Since |10 i and |20 i have the same probability distribution and |3 i is merely
a superposition of |1 i and |2 i, classically we would assume that |30 i also
shows the same probability spectrum, however
1
|30 i = H |3 i = (|10 i + |20 i) = |0i (3.48)
2
so in case of |0i the probabilities added up while in case of |1i, the complex
amplitudes had opposing signs leading to a partial probability of 0. This
phenomenon is referred to as positive or negative interference.
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 73

So while the computational paths on a probabilistic TM are independent,

interference allows computations on superpositioned states to interact and it
is this interaction which allows a quantum computer to solve certain problems
more efficiently than classical computers. The foremost design principle for
any quantum algorithm therefor is to use interference to increase the prob-
ability of interesting eigenstates while trying to reduce the probability of
dull states, in order to raise the chance that a measurement will pick one
of the former.
Since any unitary operator U can also be regarded as a base-transformation
(see 1.3.2.6), the above problem can also be reformulated as finding an ap-
propriate observable for the measurement, thereby effectively replacing the
register observable S (see 2.2.1.5) by an observable S with the Hermitian
operator
S = U (s) S U (s) (3.49)
If the whole machine state is measured at once, then the eigenvalues |i of S
are the column vectors of U
X
S |i = U S U |i = i |i with |i = U |ii = uji |ji (3.50)
j

Fourier transformations are esp. useful, if global properties of classic

functions such as periodicy are of interest for the problem.

3.5.2 Dealing with Reversibility

In 2.2.2.5 we have shown that for any non-reversible boolean function f :
Bn Bm there exists a set of unitary quantum functions

F : |xix |0iy |xix |f (x)iy with |x| = n and |y| = m (3.51)

which can be used to circumvent the inherent restriction of quantum com-

puters to reversible operations.

3.5.2.1 Register Reuse

While keeping a copy of the argument will allow us to compute non reversible
functions, this also forces us to provide extra storage for intermediate results.
Since longer calculations usually involve the composition of many quantum
functions this would leave us with a steadily increasing amount of junk bits
which are of no concern for the final result. A straightforward implementation
of f (x) = l(k(h(g(x)))) already uses 3 additional registers (function values
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 74

are in prefix notation, O stands for a quantum function O : |x, 0i |x, o(x)i,
indices indicate the registers operated on):
G
12 23H 34 K
|x, 0, 0, 0, 0i |x, gx, 0, 0, 0i |x, gx, hgx, 0, 0i (3.52)
45 L
|x, gx, hgx, khgx, 0i |x, gx, hgx, khgx, lkhgxi
Generally, a composition of n non-revertible functions would require n 1
registers to store intermediary results.
A simple and elegant solution of this problem was proposed by Bennet
[8, 9]: If a composition of two non-reversible functions f (x) = h(g(x)) is to
be computed, the scratch space for the intermediate result can be recycled
using the following procedure:

12G 23 H 12 G
|x, 0, 0i |x, g(x), 0i |x, g(x), h(g(x))i |x, 0, f (x)i (3.53)

The last step is merely the inversion of the first step and uncomputes the
intermediate result. The second register can then be reused for further com-
putations.
Without scratch-management, the evaluation of a composition of depth
d needs d operations and consumes d 1 junk registers. Bennets method of
uncomputing can then be used to trade space against time: Totally uncom-
puting of all intermediate results needs 2d 1 operations and d 1 scratch
registers, which is useful, if the scratch can be reused in the further compu-
tation.
By a combined use of r registers as scratch and junk space, a composition
of depth d = (r + 2)(r + 1)/2 can be evaluated with 2d r 1 = (r +
1)2 operations. An calculation of f (x) = l(k(j(i(h(g(x)))))) on a 4-register
machine (1 input, 1 output and 2 scratch/junk registers) would run as follows
(function values are in prefix notation):

I34 H23 G12 G H

12 23

J42 K23 J42
|x, 0, 0, 0i |x, gx, hgx, ihgxi |x, 0, 0, ihgxi (3.54)
32 L
|x, 0, kjihgx, ihgxi |x, lkjihgx, kjihgx, ihgxi = |x, f x, kjihgx, ihgxi

By using this method, we can reduce the needed space by O(1/ d) with a
computation overhead of O(2).

3.5.2.2 Junk Registers

If the computation of a function f (x) fills a scratch register with the junk
bits j(x) (i.e. |x, 0, 0i |x, f (x), j(x)i), a similar procedure can free the
CHAPTER 3. QUANTUM PROGRAMMING 75

register again:

F 123 Fanout F
|x, 0, 0, 0i |x, f (x), j(x), 0i 24 |x, f (x), j(x), f (x)i
123
|x, 0, 0, f (x)i
(3.55)
Again, the last step is the inversion of the first. The intermediate step is
a Fanout operation (see 3.4.7.2) which copies the function result into an
additional empty register. Possible implementations are e.g.

Fanout : |x, yi |x, x yi or |x, (x + y) mod 2n i (3.56)

3.5.2.3 Overwriting Invertible Functions

As pointed out in 2.2.2.4, every invertible function f : Z2n Z2n has a
corresponding pseudo classic operator F : |ii |f (i)i. While a direct im-
plementation of F is possible with any complete set of pseudo-classic opera-
tors6 , the implementation as a quantum function can be substantially more
efficient.
If we have efficient implementations of the quantum functions Uf : |i, 0i
|i, f (i)i and Uf 1 : |i, 0i |i, f 1 (i)i, then an overwriting operator F 0 can
be constructed by using an n qubit scratch register.

Uf U 1
Swap f
F 0 : |i, 0i |i, f (i)i |f (i), ii |f (i), 0i (3.57)

6
One example would be the Toffoli gate T : |x, y, zi |x (y z), y, zi which can be
used to implement any pseudo-classic operator for 3 or more qubits
Chapter 4

Quantum Algorithms

This chapter introduces two quantum killer applications Grovers fast

quantum search and Shors factorization algorithm which both solve tra-
ditional problems in computing science and provide substantial speedup over
the fastest known classical solutions.

4.1 Grovers Database Search

Many problems in classical computer science can be reformulated as search-
ing a list for a unique element which matches some predefined condition. If
no additional knowledge about the search-condition C is available, the best
classical algorithm is a brute-force search i.e. the elements are sequentially
tested against C and as soon as an element matches the condition, the al-
gorithm terminates. For a list of N elements, this requires an average of N2
comparisons.
By taking advantage of quantum parallelism and interference, Grover
found
a quantum algorithm which can find the matching element in only
O( N ) steps. [20]

4.1.1 Formulating a Query

The most straightforward way, albeit not the most convenient for the algo-
rithm, to implement the search condition is as a quantum function

query : |x, 0i |x, C(x)i with x Bn and C : Bn B (4.1)

as this allows us to formulate the problem within the realms of classical

boolean logic.

76
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 77

Grovers algorithm can then be used to solve the equation C(x) = 1 while
besides the fact that a solution exists and that it is unique, no additional
knowledge about C(x) is required.
Usually, the implementation of query will be complicated enough as not
to allow an efficient algebraic solution, but since the inner structure of C(x)
doesnt matter for the algorithm, we can easily implement a test query with
the solution n as
qufunct query(qureg x,quvoid f,int n) {
int i;

for i=0 to #x-1 { // x -> NOT (x XOR n)

if not bit(n,i) { Not(x[i]); }
}
CNot(f,x); // flip f if x=1111..
for i=0 to #x-1 { // x <- NOT (x XOR n)
if not bit(n,i) { !Not(x[i]); }
}
}

A more realistic application would be the search for an encryption key in a

known-plaintext attack. With p being the known plaintext to the ciphertext
c, a QCL implementation could look like this:
qufunct encrypt(int p,quconst key,quvoid c) { ... }

qufunct query(int c,int p,quconst key,quvoid f) {

int i;
quscratch s[blocklength];

encrypt(p,key,s);
for i=0 to #s-1 { // s -> NOT (s XOR p)
if not bit(p,i) { Not(x[i]); }
}
CNot(f,x); // flip f if s=1111..
}

Note that, unlike the example above, this query function uses a local scratch
register, so it isnt necessary to explicitely uncompute s, as this will be taken
care of by QCLs internal scratch space management (see 3.3.1.5).

4.1.2 The Algorithm

4.1.2.1 Setting up the Search Space
The solution space of a n bit query condition C is Bn . On a quantum
computer, this search space can be implemented as a superposition of all
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 78

eigenstates of an n qubit register, i.e.

N
1 X
|i = |ii with N = 2n (4.2)
N i=0
In 3.5.1.1 we have shown how such a state can be prepared by a n-qubit
Hadamard transform
n X
H : |ii 2 2 (1)(i,j) |ji (4.3)
jBn

(see 3.4.4.3) of the initial machine state |0i.

4.1.2.2 The Main Loop

The main loop of the algorithm consists of two steps
1. Perform a conditional phase shift which rotates the phase of all eigen-
vectors which match the condition C by radians.
(
|ii if C(i)
Q : |ii (4.4)
|ii if C(i)

2. Apply a diffusion operator

(
X 2
1 if i = j
D= |iidij hj| with dij = N
2 (4.5)
ij N
if i =
6 j

Since only one eigenvector |i0 i is supposed to match the search condition
C, the conditional phase shift will turn the initial even superposition into
1 1 X
|0 i = |i0 i + |ii (4.6)
N N i6=i0
The effect of the diffusion operator on an arbitrary eigenvector |ii is
2 NX
1
D |ii = |ii + |ji (4.7)
N j=0
so one iteration on a state of the form
X
|(k, l)i = k|i0 i + l|ii (4.8)
i6=i0

amounts to
Q D N 2 2(N 1) N 2 2
|(k, l)i |(k, l)i |( k+ l, l k)i
N N N N
(4.9)
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 79

4.1.2.3 Number of Iterations

If the above loop operator DQ is repeatedly applied to the initial superposi-
tion
1 1 1 NX 1
|i = |( , )i = |ii (4.10)
N N N i=0
then the resulting states is still of the form |(k, l)i and the complex ampli-
tudes k and l are described by the following system of recursions: [21]

N 2 2(N 1)
kj+1 = kj + lj (4.11)
N N
N 2 2
lj+1 = lj kj (4.12)
N N
Using the substitution sin2 = 1
N
the solution of the above system can
be written in closed form.

kj = sin((2j + 1)) (4.13)

1
lj = cos((2j + 1)) (4.14)
N 1

The probability p to measure i0 is given as p = k 2 and has a maximum

at = 2(2j+1) . Since for large lists, 1N 1 we can assume that sin
and 2 and the number of iterations m for a maximum p is about
m = b 4 N c with p > NN1 (due to rounding errors). Alternatively, if we are

content with p > 21 , then m = d 8 N e iterations will do.

4.1.3 Implementation
4.1.3.1 The Query Operator
If we choose to formulate the query as quantum function with a flag qubit
f to allow for a strictly classical implementation, as suggested in 4.1.1, then
the operator Q can be constructed as

Q = query (x, f ) V ()(f ) query(x, f ) (4.15)

by using the conditional phase gate V () (see 3.4.4.4) and considering the
flag register f as temporary scratch space.
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 80

4.1.3.2 The Diffusion Operator

Using the Hadamard Transform H (see 3.4.4.3) and a conditional phase ro-
tation R : |ii = (1)i0 |ii, the diffusion operator
X
2
D= |ii ij hj| (4.16)
i,j N

can also be written as D = HRH since

1 X
HRH = |ii (1)(i,k) (1)k0 (1)(k,j) hj| and (4.17)
N i,k,j

N
X 1 N
X 1
(i,k) k0 (k,j)
(1) (1) (1) = 2 + (1)(i,k)(k,j) = N ij 2 (4.18)
k=0 k=0

Using the not operator from 3.4.7.4 and a conditional phase gate V ()
we can implement the diffusion operator as
operator diffuse(qureg q) {
Mix(q); // Hadamard Transform
Not(q); // Invert q
CPhase(pi,q); // Rotate if q=1111..
!Not(q); // undo inversion
!Mix(q); // undo Hadamard Transform
}

In fact, the above operator implements D, but since overall phases make
no physical difference, this doesnt matter.

4.1.3.3 The Procedure grover

By using the above, we can now give a QCL implementation of the complete
algorithm:
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 81

procedure grover(int n) {
int l=floor(log(n,2))+1; // no. of qubits
int m=ceil(pi/8*sqrt(2^l)); // no. of iterations
int x;
int i;
qureg q[l];
qureg f[1];

{
reset;
Mix(q); // prepare superposition
for i= 1 to m { // main loop
query(q,f,n); // calculate C(q)
CPhase(pi,f); // negate |n>
!query(q,f,n); // undo C(q)
diffuse(q); // diffusion operator
}
measure q,x; // measurement
print "measured",x;
} until x==n;
}

The procedure argument n is the number to be found; the size of the quantum
registers as well as the numbers of iterations are set accordingly:
qcl> grover(500);
: 9 qubits, using 9 iterations
: measured 500
qcl> grover(123);
: 7 qubits, using 5 iterations
: measured 74
: measured 123
qcl> grover(1234);
: 11 qubits, using 18 iterations
: measured 1234

4.2 Shors Algorithm for Quantum Factoriza-

tion
4.2.1 Motivation
In contrast to finding and multiplying of large prime numbers, no efficient
classical algorithm for the factorization of large number is known. An algo-
rithm is called efficient if its execution time i.e. the number of elementary
operations is assymtotically polynomial in the length of its input measured in
bits. The best known (or at least published) classical algorithm (the quadratic
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 82

sieve) needs O exp ( 64 9
)1/3 N 1/3 (ln N )2/3 operations for factoring a binary
number of N bits [12] i.e. scales exponentially with the input size.
The multiplication of large prime numbers is therefore a one-way function
i.e. a function which can easily be evaluated in one direction, while its
inversion is practically impossible. One-way functions play a major roll in
cryptography and are essential to public key crypto-systems where the key
for encoding is public and only the key for decoding remains secret.
In 1978, Rivest, Shamir and Adleman developed a cryptographic algo-
rithm based on the one-way character of multiplying two large (typically
above 100 decimal digits) prime numbers. The RSA method (named after
the initials of their inventors) became the most popular public key system
and is implemented in many communication programs.
While it is generally believed (although not formally proved) that effi-
cient prime factorization on a classical computer is impossible, an efficient
algorithm for quantum computers has been proposed in 1994 by P.W. Shor
[11].

4.2.2 The Algorithm

This section describes Shors algorithm from a functional point of view which
means that it doesnt deal with the implementation for a specific hardware
architecture. A detailed implementation for the Cirac-Zoller gate can be
found in [13], for a more rigid mathematical description, please refer to [15]
and for a more detailed dicussion of the QCL implementation, look at [25].

4.2.2.1 Modular Exponentiation

Let N = n1 n2 with the greatest common divisor gcd(n1 , n2 ) = 1 be the
number to be factorized, x a randomly selected number relatively prime to
N (i.e. gcd(x, N ) = 1) and expn the modular exponentiation function with
the period r:
expn(k, N ) = xk mod N, expn(k + r, N ) = expn(k, N ), xr 1 mod N
(4.19)
The period r is the order of x mod N . If r is even, we can define a y = xr/2 ,
which satisfies the condition y 2 1 mod N and therefore is the solution of
one of the following systems of equations:
y1 1 mod n1 1 mod n2 (4.20)
y2 1 mod n1 1 mod n2
y3 1 mod n1 1 mod n2
y4 1 mod n1 1 mod n2
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 83

The first two systems have the trivial solutions y1 = 1 and y2 = 1 which
dont differ from those of the quadratic equation y 2 = 1 in Z or a Galois
field GF(p) (i.e. Zp with prime p). The last two systems have the non-
trivial solutions y3 = a, y4 = a, as postulated by the Chinese remainder
theorem stating that a system of k simultaneous congruences (i.e. a system
of equations of the form y ai mod mi ) with coprime moduli m1 , . . . , mk
(i.e. gcd(mi , mj ) = 1 for all i 6= j) has a unique solution y with 0 x <
m1 m2 . . . mk .

4.2.2.2 Finding a Factor

If r is even and y = a with a 6= 1 and a 6= N 1, then (a + 1) or (a 1)
must have a common divisor with N because a2 1 mod N which means
that a2 = cN + 1 with c N and therefore a2 1 = (a + 1)(a 1) = cN .
A factor of N can then be found by using Euclids algorithm to determine
gcd(N, a + 1) and gcd(N, a 1) which is defined as
(
b if a mod b = 0
gcd(a, b) = with a > b (4.21)
gcd(b, a mod b) if a mod b 6= 0
It can be shown that a random x matches the above mentioned conditions
with a probability p > 12 if N is not of the form N = p or N = 2p . Since
there are efficient classical algorithms to factorize pure prime powers (and
of course to recognize a factor of 2), an efficient probabilistic algorithm for
factorization can be found if the period r of the modular exponentiation can
be determined in polynomial time.

4.2.2.3 Period of a Function

Let F be quantum function F : |x, 0i |x, f (x)i of the integer function
f : Z Z2m with the unknown period r < 2n .
To determine r, we need two registers, with the sizes of 2n and m qubits,
which should be reset to |0, 0i.
As a first step we produce a homogenous superposition of all base-vectors
in the first register by applying an operator U with
N
X 1
1
U |0, 0i = ci |i, 0i with |ci | = and N = 22n (4.22)
i=0 N
This can e.g. be achieved by the Hadamard transform H. Applying F to
the resulting state gives
1 NX1
1 NX1
|i = F H |0, 0i = F |i, 0i = |i, f (i)i (4.23)
2n i=0 2n i=0
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 84

A measurement of the second register with the result k = f (s) with s < r
reduces the state to
dN/re1
X 12
0 N
| i = c0j |rj + s, ki with c0j = (4.24)
j=0 r

The post-measurement state | 0 i of the first register consists only of base-

vectors of the form |rj + si since f (rj + s) = f (s) for all j. It therefore has
a discrete, homogenous spectrum.
It is not possible to directly extract the period r or a multiple of it by mea-
surement of the first register because of the random offset s. This problem
can be solved by performing a discrete Fourier transform (see 4.2.3)

1 NX1
2i
DFT : |xi e N xy |yi (4.25)
N y=0

on the register, as the probability spectrum of the transformed state is in-

variant to the offset (i.e. only the phases but not the absolute value of the
complex amplitudes are effected).
N
X 1
| 0 i = DFT | 0 i = c0i |i, ki (4.26)
i=0

r p1
X 2i r i p1
X 2i
c0i = exp i(jr + s) = e exp ijr (4.27)
N j=0 N N j=0 N

is N
with i = 2i and p =
N r
2n 0 i

If N = 2 is a multiple of r then ci = e / r if i is a multiple of N/r and
0 otherwise. But even if r is not a power of 2, the spectrum of | 0 i shows
distinct peaks with a period of N/r because
(
1 n1
X 1 if Z
lim e2ik = (4.28)
n n
k=0
0 if
6 Z

This is also the reason why we use a first register of 2n qubits when r < 2n
because it guarantees at least 2n elements in the above sum and thus a peak
width of order O(1).
If we now measure the first register, we will get a value c close to N/r
with Zr . This can be written as c/N = c 22n /r. We can think
of this as finding a rational approximation a/b with a, b < 2n for the fixed
point binary number c 22n . An efficient classical algorithm for solving this
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 85

problem using continued fractions is described in [16] and is implemented in

the denominator function (appendix B.2).
Since the form of a rational number is not unique, and r are only
determined by a/b = /r if gcd(, r) = 1. The probability that and r are
coprime is greater then 1/ln r, so only O(n) tries are necessary for a constant
probability of success as close at 1 as desired.1

4.2.3 Quantum Fourier Transform

For a N dimensional vector |i, the discrete Fourier transform is defined as
1 NX1
2i
DFT : |xi e N xy |yi (4.29)
N y=0
Since |i is a combined state of n qubits, N is always a power of 2. The
classical fast Fourier Transform (FFT ) uses a binary decomposition of the
exponent to perform the transformation in O(n2n ) steps.
As suggested by Coppersmith [7], the same principle could adapted be to
quantum computers by using a combination of Hadamard transformations H
(see 3.4.4.3) and conditional phase gates V (see 3.4.4.4). The indices below
indicate the qubits operated on:

n1
Y i1
Y 2
DFT 0 = Hni1 ( ) Vni1,nj1 ( ij+1 ) Hn1 (4.30)
i=1 2 j=0 2
DFT 0 iterates the qubits form the MSB to the LSB, splits the qubits
with the Hadamard transformation and then conditionally applies phases
2i
according to their relative binary position (e 2ij+1 ) to each already split qubit.
The base-vectors of the transformed state | 0 i = DFT 0 |i are given in
reverse bit order, so to get the actual DFT , the bits have to be flipped.
operator dft(qureg q) { // main operator
const n=#q; // set n to length of input
int i; int j; // declare loop counters
for i=0 to n-1 {
for j=0 to i-1 { // apply conditional phase gates
CPhase(2*pi/2^(i-j+1),q[n-i-1] & q[n-j-1]);
}
Mix(q[n-i-1]); // qubit rotation
}
flip(q); // swap bit order of the output
}
1
If the supposed period r0 = b derived form the rational approximation a/b c 22m
0
is odd or gcd(xr /2 1, N ) = 1, then one could try to expand a/b by some integer factor
k in order to guess the actual period r = kb.
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 86

4.2.4 Modular Arithmetic

The most difficult part in implementing Shors algorithm is the construction
of an efficient quantum function for modular exponentiation.

expna,n (b, e) : |bib |0ie |bib |ab mod nie (4.31)

Assuming we already have an implementation for modular addition, we

could use it to construct modular multiplication and finally exponentiation
since
dld be
X
ab mod n = bi 2i a mod n with bi B (4.32)
i=0
dld be
Y i

ab mod n = a2 bi
mod n with bi B (4.33)
i=0

4.2.4.1 Modular Addition

The addition modulo n of a classic integer a and a quantum register b can
result in either a + b or (a n) + b), depending on the particular base-vector
|bi.
While for b < n the operation is revertible, this is not the case for b n,
so, if n doesnt happen to be a power of 2, besides the target resister ys for
the sum, we need an additional flag-qubit yy to allow for a quantum function
addn which is both, unitary and invariant to b:
(
|bib |a + biys |1iyf lag if a + b < n
addna,n : |bib |0iys |0iyf (4.34)
|bib |a + b niys |0iyf lag if a + b n

The actual implementation of addn can be found in appendix B.5.

Since addnna,n is a quantum function for modular subtraction and thus
1
implements the inverse function fa,n (b) = b a mod n to fa,n = a + b mod n,
we can construct an overwriting version oaddn of modular addition, by using
the method introduced in 3.5.2.3:
Uf U 1
0 Swap f
F : |i, 0i |i, f (i)i |f (i), ii |f (i), 0i (4.35)

addnna,n doesnt invert the overflow flag yf , so we have to switch it manu-

ally:
Uf1 = addnna,n (b, ys , yf ) (4.36)
The original target registers ys and yf can now be allocated as unmanaged
local scratch.
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 87

qufunct oaddn(int a,int n,qureg sum,quconst e) {

qureg j[#sum];
qureg f[1];

addn(a,n,sum,f,j,e); // junk -> a+b mod n

Swap(sum,j); // swap junk and sum
CNot(f,e); // toggle flag
!addn(n-a,n,sum,f,j,e); // uncompute b to zero
}
The register e is an enable register (see 2.2.2.6), so addn and oaddn are in
fact conditional operators which only have an effect on eigenvectors of the
form |xi|111 . . .ie .

4.2.4.2 Modular Multiplication

Modular multiplication is merely a composition of conditional additions for
each qubit of b. The first summand can be slightly optimized, since the
accumulator (prod) is still empty.
qufunct muln(int a,int n,quconst b,qureg prod,quconst e) {
int i;

for i=0 to #prod-1 {

if bit(a,i) { CNot(prod[i],b[0] & e); }
}
for i=1 to #b-1 {
oaddn(2^i*a mod n,n,prod,b[i] & e);
}
}
As above, we can construct an overwriting version, if an implementation of
the inverse function exists. This is the case if gcd(a, n) = 1 so a and n are
relatively prime, because then the modular inverse a1 with a1 a mod n = 1
exists. Since we intend to use the operator for the Shor algorithm which
demands that gcd(ak , n) = 1, this is good enough for us.
By using two conditional XOR gates defined as
(
|aia |a bib |ie if = 111 . . .
cxor : |aia |bib |ie (4.37)
|aia |bib |ie otherwise

for swapping the registers2 we can implement a conditional overwriting ver-

sion of muln defined as

omuln[[e]],a,n |bi |ab mod ni (4.38)

2
normally, 3 XOR operations are necessary to swap a register, but since one register is
empty, 2 XORs suffice.
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 88

qufunct omuln(int a,int n,qureg b,quconst e) {

qureg j[#b];

muln(a,n,b,j,e);
!muln(invmod(a,n),n,j,b,e);
cxor(j,b,e);
cxor(b,j,e);
}

4.2.4.3 Modular Exponentiation

As with muln, we can construct modular exponentiation by conditionally
applying omuln with the qubits of the exponents as enable string. Before we
can start the iteration, the accumulator (ex) has to be initialized by 1.
qufunct expn(int a,int n,quconst b,quvoid ex) {
int i;

Not(ex[0]); // start with 1

for i=0 to #b-1 {
omuln(powmod(a,2^i,n),n,ex,b[i]); // ex -> ex*a^2^i mod n
}
}

4.2.5 Implementation
4.2.5.1 Auxiliary Functions
The implementation of the Shor algorithm uses the following functions:

boolean testprime(int n)
Tests whether n is a prime number

boolean testprimepower(int n)
Tests whether n is a prime power3

int powmod(int x,int a,int n)

Calculates xa mod n

int denominator(real x,int qmax)

p
Returns the denominator q of the best rational approximation q
x
with p, q < qmax

For the actual implementations of these functions, please refer to appendix B.2.
3
Since both testfunctions
are not part of the algorithm itself, short but inefficient
implementations with O( n) have been used
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 89

4.2.5.2 The Procedure shor

The procedure shor checks whether the integer number is suitable for quan-
tum factorization, and then repeats Shors algorithm until a factor has been
found.
procedure shor(int number) {
int width=ceil(log(number,2)); // size of number in bits
qureg reg1[2*width]; // first register
qureg reg2[width]; // second register
int qmax=2^width;
int factor; // found factor
int m; real c; // measured value
int x; // base of exponentiation
int p; int q; // rational approximation p/q
int a; int b; // possible factors of number
int e; // e=x^(q/2) mod number

if number mod 2 == 0 { exit "number must be odd"; }

if testprime(number) { exit "prime number"; }
if testprimepower(number) { exit "prime power"; };

{
{ // generate random base
x=floor(random()*(number-3))+2;
} until gcd(x,number)==1;
print "chosen random x =",x;
Mix(reg1); // Hadamard transform
expn(x,number,reg1,reg2); // modular exponentiation
measure reg2; // measure 2nd register
dft(reg1); // Fourier transform
measure reg1,m; // measure 1st register
reset; // clear local registers
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 90

if m==0 { // failed if measured 0

print "measured zero in 1st register. trying again ...";
} else {
c=m*0.5^(2*width); // fixed point form of m
q=denominator(c,qmax); // find rational approximation
p=floor(q*m*c+0.5);
print "measured",m,", approximation for",c,"is",p,"/",q;
if q mod 2==1 and 2*q<qmax { // odd q ? try expanding p/q
print "odd denominator, expanding by 2";
p=2*p; q=2*q;
}
if q mod 2==1 { // failed if odd q
print "odd period. trying again ...";
} else {
print "possible period is",q;
e=powmod(x,q/2,number); // calculate candidates for
a=(e+1) mod number; // possible common factors
b=(e+number-1) mod number; // with number
print x,"^",q/2,"+ 1 mod",number,"=",a,",",
x,"^",q/2,"- 1 mod",number,"=",b;
factor=max(gcd(number,a),gcd(number,b));
}
}
} until factor>1 and factor<number;
print number,"=",factor,"*",number/factor;
}

4.2.5.3 Factoring 15
15 is the smallest number that can be factorized with Shors algorithm, as its
the product of the smallest odd prime numbers 3 and 5. Our implementation
of the modular exponentiation needs 2l + 1 qubits scratch space with l =
dld(15 + 1)e = 4. The algorithm itself needs 3l qubits, so a total of 21 qubits
must be provided.
$ qcl -b21 -i shor.qcl
qcl> shor(15)
: chosen random x = 4
: measured zero in 1st register. trying again ...
: chosen random x = 11
: measured 128 , approximation for 0.500000 is 1 / 2
: possible period is 2
: 11 ^ 1 + 1 mod 15 = 12 , 11 ^ 1 - 1 mod 15 = 10
: 15 = 5 * 3
The first try failed because 0 was measured in the first register of | 0 i and
/r = 0 gives no information about the period r.
One might argue that this is not likely to happen, since the first register
has 8 qubits and 256 possible base-vectors, however, if a number n is to be
CHAPTER 4. QUANTUM ALGORITHMS 91

factored, one might expect a period about n assuming that the prime fac-
tors of n are of the same order of magnitude. This would lead to a period qn
after the DFT and the probability p = 1n to accidentally pick the basevector
|0i, would be p = 25.8%.
In the special case of a start value x = 4 the period of the modular
exponentiation is 2 since 42 mod 15 = 1, consequently the Fourier spectrum
shows 2 peaks at |0i and |128i and p = 1/2.
The second try also had the same probability of failure since 112 mod 15 =
1, but this time, the measurement picked the second peak in the spectrum
at |128i. With 128/28 = 1/2 = /r, the period r = 2 was correctly identified
and the factors gcd(112/2 1 , 15) = {3, 5} to 15 have been found.
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List of Figures

1.1 A ball trapped between two mirrors as classical and as quan-

tum particle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2 The first three eigenstates for an electron in a potential well . 12

2.1 A simple non-classical algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

3.1 The hybrid architecture of QCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

94
List of Tables

1.1 Some observables and their corresponding operators . . . . . . 9

2.1 classical and quantum computational models . . . . . . . . . . 36

3.1 classic types and literals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

3.2 QCL operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.3 QCL arithmetic functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.4 other QCL functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.5 quantum expressions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.6 hierarchy of QCL Subroutines and allowed side-effects . . . . . 59

95
Appendix A

QCL Syntax

A.1 Expressions

complex-coord [ + | - ] digit { digit } [ . { digit }]

const digit { digit } [ . { digit }]
( complex-coord , complex-coord )
true | false
" { char } "
expr const
identifier [ [ expr [( : | .. ) expr ] ] ]
identifier ( [ expr { , expr }] )
( expr )
# expr
expr ^ expr
- expr
expr ( * | / ) expr
expr mod expr
expr ( + | - | & ) expr
expr ( == | != | < | <= | > | >= ) expr
not expr
expr and expr
expr ( or | xor ) expr

96
APPENDIX A. QCL SYNTAX 97

A.2 Statements

block { stmt { stmt } }

option letter { letter | - }
stmt [ ! ] identifier ( [ expr { , expr }] ) ;
identifier = expr ;
expr ( -> | <- | <-> ) expr ;
for identifier = expr to expr [ step expr ] block
while expr block
block until expr ;
if expr block [ else block ]
return expr ;
input [ expr ] , identifier ;
print expr [ , expr ] ;
exit [ expr ] ;
measure expr [ , identifier ] ;
reset ;
dump [ expr ] ;
list [ identifier { , identifier }] ;
( load | save ) [ expr ] ;
shell ;
set option [ , expr ] ;
stmt ;

A.3 Definitions

type int | real | complex | string

qureg | quvoid | quconst | quscratch
const-def const identifier = expr ;
var-def type identifier [ expr ] ;
type identifier [ = expr ] ;
arg-def type identifier
arg-list ( [ arg-def { , arg-def }] )
body { { const-def | var-def } { stmt } }
def const-def | var-def
APPENDIX A. QCL SYNTAX 98

type identifier arg-list body

procedure identifier arg-list body
operator identifier arg-list body
qufunct identifier arg-list body
extern operator identifier arg-list ;
extern qufunct identifier arg-list ;
Appendix B

The Shor Algorithm in QCL

B.1 default.qcl

extern qufunct Fanout(quconst a,quvoid b);

extern qufunct Swap(qureg a,qureg b);

extern operator Matrix2x2(

complex u00,complex u01,
complex u10,complex u11,
qureg q);

extern operator Matrix4x4(

complex u00,complex u01,complex u02,complex u03,
complex u10,complex u11,complex u12,complex u13,
complex u20,complex u21,complex u22,complex u23,
complex u30,complex u31,complex u32,complex u33,
qureg q);

extern operator Matrix8x8(

complex u00,complex u01,complex u02,complex u03,
complex u04,complex u05,complex u06,complex u07,
complex u10,complex u11,complex u12,complex u13,
complex u14,complex u15,complex u16,complex u17,
complex u20,complex u21,complex u22,complex u23,
complex u24,complex u25,complex u26,complex u27,
complex u30,complex u31,complex u32,complex u33,
complex u34,complex u35,complex u36,complex u37,
complex u40,complex u41,complex u42,complex u43,
complex u44,complex u45,complex u46,complex u47,
complex u50,complex u51,complex u52,complex u53,
complex u54,complex u55,complex u56,complex u57,
complex u60,complex u61,complex u62,complex u63,

99
APPENDIX B. THE SHOR ALGORITHM IN QCL 100

complex u64,complex u65,complex u66,complex u67,

complex u70,complex u71,complex u72,complex u73,
complex u74,complex u75,complex u76,complex u77,
qureg q);

extern qufunct Perm2(int p0 ,int p1 ,qureg q);

extern qufunct Perm4(int p0 ,int p1 ,int p2 ,int p3 ,qureg q);

extern qufunct Perm8(

int p0 ,int p1 ,int p2 ,int p3 ,int p4 ,int p5 ,int p6 ,int p7 ,
qureg q);

extern qufunct Perm16(

int p0 ,int p1 ,int p2 ,int p3 ,int p4 ,int p5 ,int p6 ,int p7 ,
int p8 ,int p9 ,int p10,int p11,int p12,int p13,int p14,int p15,
qureg q);

extern qufunct Perm32(

int p0 ,int p1 ,int p2 ,int p3 ,int p4 ,int p5 ,int p6 ,int p7 ,
int p8 ,int p9 ,int p10,int p11,int p12,int p13,int p14,int p15,
int p16,int p17,int p18,int p19,int p20,int p21,int p22,int p23,
int p24,int p25,int p26,int p27,int p28,int p29,int p30,int p31,
qureg q);

extern qufunct Perm64(

int p0 ,int p1 ,int p2 ,int p3 ,int p4 ,int p5 ,int p6 ,int p7 ,
int p8 ,int p9 ,int p10,int p11,int p12,int p13,int p14,int p15,
int p16,int p17,int p18,int p19,int p20,int p21,int p22,int p23,
int p24,int p25,int p26,int p27,int p28,int p29,int p30,int p31,
int p32,int p33,int p34,int p35,int p36,int p37,int p38,int p39,
int p40,int p41,int p42,int p43,int p44,int p45,int p46,int p47,
int p48,int p49,int p50,int p51,int p52,int p53,int p54,int p55,
int p56,int p57,int p58,int p59,int p60,int p61,int p62,int p63,
qureg q);

extern qufunct Not(qureg q);

extern qufunct CNot(qureg q,quconst c);

extern operator CPhase(real phi,qureg q);

extern operator Rot(real theta,qureg q);

extern operator Mix(qureg q);

extern qufunct ModExp(int n,int x,quconst a,quvoid b);

boolean bit(int n,int b) {

APPENDIX B. THE SHOR ALGORITHM IN QCL 101

return n/2^b mod 2 == 1;

}

qufunct set(int n,qureg q) {

int i;
for i=0 to #q-1 {
if bit(n,i) { Not(q[i]); }
}
}

const pi=3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197;

B.2 functions.qcl
set allow-redefines 1;

// returns the smallest factor > 1 of n or 1 if n is prime

int findfactor(int n) {
int i;
if n<=0 { exit "findfactor takes only positive args"; }
for i=2 to floor(sqrt(n)) {
if n mod i == 0 { return i; }
}
return 1;
}

// test if n is a prime number

boolean testprime(int n) {
int i;
if n<=1 { return false; }
for i=2 to floor(sqrt(n)) {
if n mod i == 0 { return false; }
}
return true;
}

// test if n is a prime power

boolean testprimepower(int n) {
int i;
int f;
i=2;
while i<=floor(sqrt(n)) and f==0 {
if n mod i == 0 { f=i; }
i=i+1;
}
APPENDIX B. THE SHOR ALGORITHM IN QCL 102

for i=2 to floor(log(n,f)) {

if f^i==n { return true; }
}
return false;
}

// returns x^a mod n

int powmod(int x,int a,int n) {

int u=x;
int y=1;
int i;

for i=0 to 30 {
if a/2^i mod 2 == 1 { y=y*u mod n; }
u=u^2 mod n;
}
return y;
}

// return the modular inverse to a mod n or 0 if gcd(a,n)>1

int invmod(int a,int n) {

int b=a;
int i;

if gcd(a,n)>1 { return 0; }
for i=1 to n {
if b*a mod n == 1 { return b; }
b=b*a mod n;
}
return 0;
}

// finds the denominator q of the best rational approximation p/q

// for x with q<qmax

int denominator(real x,int qmax) {

real y=x;
real z;
int q0;
int q1=1;
int q2;

while true {
z=y-floor(y);
if z<0.5/qmax^2 { return q1; }
y=1/z;
q2=floor(y)*q1+q0;
APPENDIX B. THE SHOR ALGORITHM IN QCL 103

if q2>=qmax { return q1; }

q0=q1; q1=q2;
}
}

set allow-redefines 0;

B.3 qufunct.qcl
set allow-redefines 1;

// pseudo classic operator to swap bit order

qufunct flip(qureg q) {
int i; // declare loop counter
for i=0 to #q/2-1 { // swap 2 symmetric bits
Swap(q[i],q[#q-i-1]);
}
}

// Conditional Xor

qufunct cxor(quconst a,qureg b,quconst e) {

int i;
for i=0 to #a-1 {
CNot(b[i],a[i] & e);
}
}

// Conditional multiplexed binary adder for one of 2 classical

// bits and 1 qubit.
// Full adder if #sum=2, half adder if #sum=1.

qufunct muxaddbit(boolean a0,boolean a1,quconst sel,

quconst b,qureg sum,quconst e) {
qureg s=sel; // redeclare sel as qureg

if (a0 xor a1) { // a0 and a1 differ?

if a0 { Not(s); } // write a into sect qubit
if #sum>1 { // set carry if available
CNot(sum[1],sum[0] & s & e);
}
CNot(sum[0],s & e); // add a
if a0 { Not(s); } // restore sect qubit
} else {
if a0 and a1 {
if #sum>1 { // set carry if available
CNot(sum[1],sum[0] & e);
APPENDIX B. THE SHOR ALGORITHM IN QCL 104

}
CNot(sum[0],e); // add a
}
};
// Add qubit b
if #sum>1 { // set carry if available
CNot(sum[1],b & sum[0]);
}
CNot(sum[0],b); // add b
}

// conditional multiplexed binary adder for one of 2 integers

// and 1 qureg. No output carry.

qufunct muxadd(int a0,int a1,qureg sel,quconst b,quvoid sum,quconst e) {

int i;
for i=0 to #b-2 { // fulladd first #b-1 bits
muxaddbit(bit(a0,i),bit(a1,i),sel,b[i],sum[i:i+1],e);
}
// half add last bit
muxaddbit(bit(a0,#b-1),bit(a1,#b-1),sel,b[#b-1],sum[#b-1],e);
}

// Comparison operator. flag is toggled if b<a.

// b gets overwritten. Needs a #b-1 qubit junk register j
// as argument which is left dirty.

qufunct lt(int a,qureg b,qureg flag,quvoid j) {

int i;
if bit(a,#b-1) { // disable further comparison
CNot(j[#b-2],b[#b-1]); // and set result flag if
Not(b[#b-1]); // MSB(a)>MSB(b)
CNot(flag,b[#b-1]);
} else {
Not(b[#b-1]); // disable further comparison
CNot(j[#b-2],b[#b-1]); // if MSB(a)<MSB(b)
}
for i=#b-2 to 1 step -1 { // continue for lower bits
if bit(a,i) { // set new junk bit if undecided
CNot(j[i-1],j[i] & b[i]);
Not(b[i]); // honor last junk bit and
CNot(flag,j[i] & b[i]); // set result flag if a[i]>b[i]
} else {
Not(b[i]);
CNot(j[i-1],j[i] & b[i]);
}
}
if bit(a,0) {
Not(b[0]); // if still undecided (j[0]=1)
APPENDIX B. THE SHOR ALGORITHM IN QCL 105

CNot(flag,j[0] & b[0]); // result is LSB(a)>LSB(b)

}
}

set allow-redefines 0;

B.4 dft.qcl
operator dft(qureg q) { // main operator
const n=#q; // set n to length of input
int i; int j; // declare loop counters
for i=0 to n-1 {
for j=0 to i-1 { // apply conditional phase gates
CPhase(2*pi/2^(i-j+1),q[n-i-1] & q[n-j-1]);
}
Mix(q[n-i-1]); // qubit rotation
}
flip(q); // swap bit order of the output
}

B.5 modarith.qcl
set allow-redefines 1;

include "functions.qcl";
include "qufunct.qcl";

// conditional addition mod n for 1 integer and 1 qureg

// flag is set if a+b<n for invertability

qufunct addn(int a,int n,quconst b,quvoid flag,quvoid sum,quconst e) {

qureg s=sum[0\#b-1];
qureg f=sum[#b-1];
qureg bb=b; // "abuse" sum and b as scratch
lt(n-a,bb,f,s); // for the less-than operator
CNot(flag,f & e); // save result of comparison
!lt(n-a,bb,f,s); // restore sum and b
muxadd(2^#b+a-n,a,flag,b,sum,e); // add either a or a-n
}

// Conditional overwriting addition mod n: sum -> (a+sum) mod n

qufunct oaddn(int a,int n,qureg sum,quconst e) {

qureg j[#sum];
qureg f[1];

addn(a,n,sum,f,j,e); // junk -> a+b mod n

APPENDIX B. THE SHOR ALGORITHM IN QCL 106

Swap(sum,j); // swap junk and sum

CNot(f,e); // toggle flag
!addn(n-a,n,sum,f,j,e); // uncompute b to zero
}

// Conditional Multiplication mod n of an integer a by the qureg b,

// prod <- ab mod n.

qufunct muln(int a,int n,quconst b,qureg prod,quconst e) {

int i;

for i=0 to #prod-1 {

if bit(a,i) { CNot(prod[i],b[0] & e); }
}
for i=1 to #b-1 {
oaddn(2^i*a mod n,n,prod,b[i] & e);
}
}

// Conditional Overwriting multiplication mod n: b-> ab mod n

qufunct omuln(int a,int n,qureg b,quconst e) {

qureg j[#b];

if gcd(a,n)>1 {
exit "omuln: a and n have to be relativly prime";
}
muln(a,n,b,j,e);
!muln(invmod(a,n),n,j,b,e);
cxor(j,b,e);
cxor(b,j,e);
}

// Modular exponentiation: b -> x^a mod n

qufunct expn(int a,int n,quconst b,quvoid ex) {

int i;

Not(ex[0]); // start with 1

for i=0 to #b-1 {
omuln(powmod(a,2^i,n),n,ex,b[i]); // ex -> ex*a^2^i mod n
}
}

set allow-redefines 0;
APPENDIX B. THE SHOR ALGORITHM IN QCL 107

B.6 shor.qcl
include "modarith.qcl";
include "dft.qcl";

procedure shor(int number) {

int width=ceil(log(number,2)); // size of number in bits
qureg reg1[2*width]; // first register
qureg reg2[width]; // second register
int qmax=2^width;
int factor; // found factor
int m; real c; // measured value
int x; // base of exponentiation
int p; int q; // rational approximation p/q
int a; int b; // possible factors of number
int e; // e=x^(q/2) mod number

if number mod 2 == 0 { exit "number must be odd"; }

if testprime(number) { exit "prime number"; }
if testprimepower(number) { exit "prime power"; };

{
{ // generate random base
x=floor(random()*(number-3))+2;
} until gcd(x,number)==1;
print "chosen random x =",x;
Mix(reg1); // Hadamard transform
expn(x,number,reg1,reg2); // modular exponentiation
measure reg2; // measure 2nd register
dft(reg1); // Fourier transform
measure reg1,m; // measure 2st register
reset; // clear local registers
if m==0 { // failed if measured 0
print "measured zero in 1st register. trying again ...";
} else {
c=m*0.5^(2*width); // fixed point form of m
q=denominator(c,qmax); // find rational approximation
p=floor(q*c+0.5);
print "measured",m,", approximation for",c,"is",p,"/",q;
if q mod 2==1 and 2*q<qmax { // odd q ? try expanding p/q
print "odd denominator, expanding by 2";
p=2*p; q=2*q;
}
if q mod 2==1 { // failed if odd q
print "odd period. trying again ...";
} else {
print "possible period is",q;
e=powmod(x,q/2,number); // calculate candidates for
a=(e+1) mod number; // possible common factors
APPENDIX B. THE SHOR ALGORITHM IN QCL 108

b=(e+number-1) mod number; // with number

print x,"^",q/2,"+ 1 mod",number,"=",a,",",
x,"^",q/2,"- 1 mod",number,"=",b;
factor=max(gcd(number,a),gcd(number,b));
}
}
} until factor>1 and factor<number;
print number,"=",factor,"*",number/factor;
}