Equivalence checking of quantum protocols

Abstract

Quantum Information Processing (QIP) is an emerging area at the intersection of physics and computer science. It aims to establish the principles of communication and computation for systems based on the theory of quantum mechanics. Interesting QIP protocols such as quantum key distribution, teleportation, and blind quantum computation have already been realised in the laboratory and are now in the realm of mainstream industrial applications. The complexity of these protocols, along with possible inaccuracies in implementation, demands systematic and formal analysis. In this paper, we present a new technique and a tool, with a high-level interface, for verification of quantum protocols using equivalence checking. Previous work by Gay, Nagarajan and Papanikolaou used model-checking to verify quantum protocols represented in the stabilizer formalism, a restricted model which can be simulated efficiently on classical computers. Here, we are able to go beyond stabilizer states and verify protocols efficiently on all input states. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.