Quipper: A Scalable Quantum Programming Language

TL;DR

Quipper is a scalable, expressive quantum programming language designed to facilitate the development and analysis of complex quantum algorithms on practical hardware.

Contribution

It introduces Quipper, a novel functional, higher-order quantum programming language capable of handling large-scale quantum computations.

Findings

Successfully programmed diverse non-trivial quantum algorithms

Can generate quantum gate representations with trillions of gates

Proven effective and user-friendly for quantum algorithm development

Abstract

The field of quantum algorithms is vibrant. Still, there is currently a lack of programming languages for describing quantum computation on a practical scale, i.e., not just at the level of toy problems. We address this issue by introducing Quipper, a scalable, expressive, functional, higher-order quantum programming language. Quipper has been used to program a diverse set of non-trivial quantum algorithms, and can generate quantum gate representations using trillions of gates. It is geared towards a model of computation that uses a classical computer to control a quantum device, but is not dependent on any particular model of quantum hardware. Quipper has proven effective and easy to use, and opens the door towards using formal methods to analyze quantum algorithms.