The Semantics of Effects: Centrality, Quantum Control and Reversible Recursion

TL;DR

This thesis explores the semantics of effects, quantum computing as reversible effects, and recursion in reversible programming, establishing formal conditions, semantics, and theories for these concepts.

Contribution

It provides necessary and sufficient conditions for monads to have a centre, links equational and denotational semantics, and develops a reversible quantum programming language with complete semantics.

Findings

Characterization of monads with a centre for effects

A reversible quantum programming language with complete semantics

Operational and denotational semantics for reversible recursion

Abstract

This thesis revolves around an area of computer science called "semantics". We work with operational semantics, equational theories, and denotational semantics. The first contribution of this thesis is a study of the commutativity of effects through the prism of monads. Monads are the generalisation of algebraic structures such as monoids, which have a notion of centre: the centre of a monoid is made of elements which commute with all others. We provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for a monad to have a centre. We also detail the semantics of a language with effects that carry information on which effects are central. Moreover, we provide a strong link between its equational theories and its denotational semantics. The second focus of the thesis is quantum computing, seen as a reversible effect. Physically permissible quantum operations are all reversible, except measurement; however, measurement can be deferred at the end of the computation, allowing us to focus on the reversible part first. We define a simply-typed reversible programming language performing quantum operations called "unitaries". A denotational semantics and an equational theory adapted to the language are presented, and we prove that the former is complete. Furthermore, we study recursion in reversible programming, providing adequate operational and denotational semantics to a Turing-complete, reversible, functional programming language. The denotational semantics uses the dcpo enrichment of rig join inverse categories. This mathematical account of higher-order reasoning on reversible computing does not directly generalise to its quantum counterpart. In the conclusion, we detail the limitations and possible future for higher-order quantum control through guarded recursion.