Theoretical and practical aspects of verification of quantum computers

Abstract

Quantum computing is emerging at a meteoric pace from a pure academic field to a fully industrial framework. Rapid advances are happening both in the physical realisations of quantum chips, and in their potential software applications. In contrast, we are not seeing that rapid growth in the design and verification methodologies for scaled-up quantum machines. In this work we describe the field of verification of quantum computers. We discuss the underlying concepts of this field, its theoretical and practical challenges, and state-of-the-art approaches to addressing those challenges. The goal of this paper is to help facilitate early efforts to adapt and create verification methodologies for quantum computers and systems. Without such early efforts, a debilitating gap may form between the state-of-the-art of low level physical technologies for quantum computers, and our ability to build medium, large, and very large scale integrated quantum circuits (M/L/VLSIQ).