QuantumEyes: Towards Better Interpretability of Quantum Circuits

TL;DR

QuantumEyes is an interactive visual analytics system designed to improve understanding of quantum circuits by providing global and local visualizations, aiding users in interpreting quantum state evolution and gate effects.

Contribution

This work introduces QuantumEyes, a novel visual analytics tool with unique visualizations for better interpretability of quantum circuits, validated through case studies and expert feedback.

Findings

QuantumEyes enhances interpretability of quantum circuits.

The system is effective and usable according to expert evaluations.

Case studies demonstrate improved understanding of quantum algorithms.

Abstract

Quantum computing offers significant speedup compared to classical computing, which has led to a growing interest among users in learning and applying quantum computing across various applications. However, quantum circuits, which are fundamental for implementing quantum algorithms, can be challenging for users to understand due to their underlying logic, such as the temporal evolution of quantum states and the effect of quantum amplitudes on the probability of basis quantum states. To fill this research gap, we propose QuantumEyes, an interactive visual analytics system to enhance the interpretability of quantum circuits through both global and local levels. For the global-level analysis, we present three coupled visualizations to delineate the changes of quantum states and the underlying reasons: a Probability Summary View to overview the probability evolution of quantum states; a State Evolution View to enable an in-depth analysis of the influence of quantum gates on the quantum states; a Gate Explanation View to show the individual qubit states and facilitate a better understanding of the effect of quantum gates. For the local-level analysis, we design a novel geometrical visualization Dandelion Chart to explicitly reveal how the quantum amplitudes affect the probability of the quantum state. We thoroughly evaluated QuantumEyes as well as the novel QuantumEyes integrated into it through two case studies on different types of quantum algorithms and in-depth expert interviews with 12 domain experts. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of our approach in enhancing the interpretability of quantum circuits.