Quantum Netlist Compiler (QNC)

TL;DR

The paper introduces QNC, a quantum netlist compiler that translates arbitrary unitary operators into executable quantum circuits, facilitating hardware-specific quantum algorithm implementation and optimization.

Contribution

QNC is a novel compiler that handles generic unitary operators and generates OpenQASM-2.0 circuits tailored to diverse quantum hardware technologies.

Findings

QNC successfully converts arbitrary unitaries into quantum circuits.

Simulations on IBM hardware demonstrate QNC's effectiveness.

QNC produces optimized circuits with high success rates.

Abstract

Over the last decade, Quantum Computing hardware has rapidly developed and become a very intriguing, promising, and active research field among scientists worldwide. To achieve the desired quantum functionalities, quantum algorithms require translation from a high-level description to a machine-specific physical operation sequence. In contrast to classical compilers, state-of-the-art quantum compilers are in their infancy. We believe there is a research need for a quantum compiler that can deal with generic unitary operators and generate basic unitary operations according to quantum machines' diverse underlying technologies and characteristics. In this work, we introduce the Quantum Netlist Compiler (QNC) that converts arbitrary unitary operators or desired initial states of quantum algorithms to OpenQASM-2.0 circuits enabling them to run on actual quantum hardware. Extensive simulations were run on the IBM quantum systems. The results show that QNC is well suited for quantum circuit optimization and produces circuits with competitive success rates in practice.