MCBeth: A Measurement Based Quantum Programming Language

TL;DR

MCBeth is a novel measurement-based quantum programming language that enables direct representation, simulation, and potential hardware execution of measurement-based quantum algorithms, bridging a gap in existing quantum programming tools.

Contribution

Introduces MCBeth, the first practical measurement-based quantum programming language with a compiler for gate-based hardware, enhancing implementation and simulation capabilities.

Findings

Allows direct programming of measurement-based quantum algorithms

Provides a compiler to translate measurement-based programs to gate-based instructions

Highlights advantages of measurement-based computation for certain quantum tasks

Abstract

Gate-based quantum programming languages are ubiquitous but measurement-based languages currently exist only on paper. This work introduces MCBeth, a quantum programming language which allows programmers to directly represent, program, and simulate measurement-based and cluster state computation by building upon the measurement calculus. While MCBeth programs are meant to be executed directly on hardware, to take advantage of current machines we also provide a compiler to gate-based instructions. We argue that there are clear advantages to measurement-based quantum computation compared to gate-based when it comes to implementing common quantum algorithms and distributed quantum computation.