Reasoning about entanglement and separability in quantum higher-order functions

Abstract

We present a logical approach to the separability analysis issue for a functional quantum computation language. This logic is inspired by previous works on logical analysis of aliasing for imperative functional programs. Both analyses share similarities notably because they are highly non-compositional. Nevertheless, the intrisic non determinism of quantum computation has a large impact on the definitions of the semantics and the validity of logical assertions. To the knowledge of the authors, it is the first proposal of an entanglement/separability analysis for a functional quantum programming language with higher-order functions. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.