Proving Quantum Programs Correct

Abstract

As quantum computing progresses steadily from theory into practice, programmers will face a common problem: How can they be sure that their code does what they intend it to do? This paper presents encouraging results in the application of mechanized proof to the domain of quantum programming in the context of the SQIR development. It verifies the correctness of a range of a quantum algorithms including Grover’s algorithm and quantum phase estimation, a key component of Shor’s algorithm. In doing so, it aims to highlight both the successes and challenges of formal verification in the quantum context and motivate the theorem proving community to target quantum computing as an application domain.

Publication
12th International Conference on Interactive Theorem Proving (ITP 2021)
Robert Rand
Robert Rand
Assistant Professor of Computer Science

My main interest is in applying techniques from programming languages and formal verification to the domain of quantum computation.