Qumin, a minimalist quantum programming language

TL;DR

Qumin is a minimalist, high-level quantum programming language that integrates classical and quantum computation through a dual-sublanguage approach, supported by theoretical foundations and practical tools.

Contribution

It introduces a novel dual-sublanguage design for quantum programming, combining lambda calculus and linear types with an open-source implementation.

Findings

Design effectively separates classical and quantum programming concerns.

Provides tools for quantum algorithm implementation and interaction.

Open-source interpreter and typechecker available for experimentation.

Abstract

In this work we introduce Qumin, a novel quantum programming language with a focus on providing an easy to use, minimalist, high-level, and easily extensible platform for quantum programming. Qumin's design concentrates on encompassing the various interactions between classical and quantum computation via the use of two sublanguages: an untyped one that handles classical preparation and control, and one linearly typed that explicitly handles quantum routines. This allows the classical part of the language to be freely used for general programming while placing restrictions on the quantum part that enforce rules of quantum computing like the no-cloning of qubits. We describe both the language's theoretical foundations in terms of lambda calculi and linear type systems, and more practical matters such as implementations of algorithms and useful programming tools like matrix and oracle generators that streamline the interaction of the classical and quantum fragments of a program. Finally, we provide an experimental open-source implementation of an interpreter, typechecker and related tools for the language (which can be found in \url{https://github.com/wintershammer/QImp}).