Verification of Linear Optical Quantum Computing using Quantum Process Calculus

Sonja Franke-Arnold
(University of Glasgow)
Simon J. Gay
(University of Glasgow)
Ittoop Vergheese Puthoor
(University of Glasgow)

We explain the use of quantum process calculus to describe and analyse linear optical quantum computing (LOQC). The main idea is to define two processes, one modelling a linear optical system and the other expressing a specification, and prove that they are behaviourally equivalent. We extend the theory of behavioural equivalence in the process calculus Communicating Quantum Processes (CQP) to include multiple particles (namely photons) as information carriers, described by Fock states or number states. We summarise the theory in this paper, including the crucial result that equivalence is a congruence, meaning that it is preserved by embedding in any context. In previous work, we have used quantum process calculus to model LOQC but without verifying models against specifications. In this paper, for the first time, we are able to carry out verification. We illustrate this approach by describing and verifying two models of an LOQC CNOT gate.

In Johannes Borgström and Silvia Crafa: Proceedings Combined 21st International Workshop on Expressiveness in Concurrency and 11th Workshop on Structural Operational Semantics (EXPRESS/SOS 2014), Rome, Italy, 1st September 2014, Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 160, pp. 111–129.
Published: 6th August 2014.

ArXived at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.160.10 bibtex PDF
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