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A Quantum interpretation of separating conjunction for local reasoning of Quantum programs based on separation logic

Published:12 January 2022Publication History
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Abstract

It is well-known that quantum programs are not only complicated to design but also challenging to verify because the quantum states can have exponential size and require sophisticated mathematics to encode and manipulate. To tackle the state-space explosion problem for quantum reasoning, we propose a Hoare-style inference framework that supports local reasoning for quantum programs. By providing a quantum interpretation of the separating conjunction, we are able to infuse separation logic into our framework and apply local reasoning using a quantum frame rule that is similar to the classical frame rule. For evaluation, we apply our framework to verify various quantum programs including Deutsch–Jozsa’s algorithm and Grover's algorithm.

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Auxiliary Presentation Video

This is the introduction video of the paper "A Quantum Interpretation of Separating Conjunction for Local Reasoning of Quantum Programs Based on Separation Logic" which was accepted in POPL 2022. It is well-known that quantum programs are not only complicated to design but also challenging to verify because the quantum states can have exponential size and require sophisticated mathematics to encode and manipulate. To tackle the state-space explosion problem for quantum reasoning, we propose a Hoare-style inference framework that supports local reasoning for quantum programs. By providing a quantum interpretation of the separating conjunction, we are able to infuse separation logic into our framework and apply local reasoning using a quantum frame rule that is similar to the classical frame rule. For evaluation, we apply our framework to verify various quantum programs including Deutsch–Jozsa’s algorithm and Grover's algorithm.

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        cover image Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages
        Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages  Volume 6, Issue POPL
        January 2022
        1886 pages
        EISSN:2475-1421
        DOI:10.1145/3511309
        Issue’s Table of Contents

        Copyright © 2022 Owner/Author

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        Association for Computing Machinery

        New York, NY, United States

        Publication History

        • Published: 12 January 2022
        Published in pacmpl Volume 6, Issue POPL

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