Quantum information and computation is concerned with the use of quantum-mechanical systems to carry out computational and information-processing tasks [16]. In the few short years that this approach has been studied, a

The field of quantum computation suffers from a lack of syntax. In the absence of a convenient programming language, algorithms are frequently expressed in terms of hardware circuits or Turing machines. Neither approach particularly encourages structured programming or abstractions such as data types. In this paper, we describe the syntax and semantics of a simple quantum programming language. This language provides high-level features such as loops, recursive procedures, and structured data types. It is statically typed, and it has an interesting denotational semantics in terms of complete partial orders of superoperators. 1

The classical lambda calculus may be regarded both as a programming language and as a formal algebraic system for reasoning about computation. It provides a computational model equivalent to the Turing machine, and continues to be of enormous benefit in the classical theory of computation. We propose that quantum computation, like its classical counterpart, may benefit from a version of the lambda calculus suitable for expressing and reasoning about quantum algorithms. In this paper we develop a quantum lambda calculus as an alternative model of quantum computation, which combines some of the benefits of both the quantum Turing machine and the quantum circuit models. The calculus turns out to be closely related to the linear lambda calculi used in the study of Linear Logic. We set up a computational model and an equational proof system for this calculus, and we argue that it is equivalent to the quantum Turing machine.

These ‘lecture notes ’ are based on joint work with Samson Abramsky. I will survey and informally discuss the results of [3, 4, 5, 12, 13] in a pedestrian not too technical way. These include: • ‘The logic of entanglement’, that is, the identification and abstract axiomatization of the ‘quantum information-flow ’ which enables protocols such as quantum teleportation. 1 To this means we defined strongly compact closed categories which abstractly capture the behavioral properties of quantum entanglement. • ‘Postulates for an abstract quantum formalism ’ in which classical informationflow (e.g. token exchange) is part of the formalism. As an example, we provided a purely formal description of quantum teleportation and proved correctness in abstract generality. 2 In this formalism types reflect kinds, contra the essentially typeless von Neumann formalism [25]. Hence even concretely this formalism manifestly improves on the usual one. • ‘A high-level approach to quantum informatics’. 3 Indeed, the above discussed work can be conceived as aiming to solve: von Neumann quantum formalism � high-level language low-level language. I also provide a brief discussion on how classical and quantum uncertainty can be mixed in the above formalism (cf. density matrices). 4

Abstract. This article is a brief and subjective survey of quantum programming language research. 1 Quantum Computation Quantum computing is a relatively young subject. It has its beginnings in 1982, when Paul Benioff and Richard Feynman independently pointed out that a quantum mechanical system can be used to perform computations [11, p.12]. Feynman’s interest in quantum computation was motivated by the fact that it is computationally very expensive to simulate quantum physical systems on classical computers. This is due to the fact that such simulation involves the manipulation is extremely large matrices (whose dimension is exponential in the size of the quantum system being simulated). Feynman conceived of quantum computers as a means of simulating nature much more efficiently. The evidence to this day is that quantum computers can indeed perform certain tasks more efficiently than classical computers. Perhaps the best-known example is Shor’s factoring algorithm, by which a quantum computer can find

... in the light of the results in [Abramsky and Coecke LiCS‘04]. The key fact is that the notion of a strongly compact closed category allows abstract notions of adjoint, bipartite projector and inner product to be defined, and their key properties to be proved. In this paper we improve on the definition of strong compact closure as compared to the one presented in [Abramsky and Coecke LiCS‘04]. This modification enables an elegant characterization of strong compact closure in terms of adjoints and a Yanking axiom, and a better treatment of bipartite projectors.

Abstract. These lecture notes survey some joint work with Samson Abramsky as it was presented by me at several conferences in the summer of 2005. It concerns ‘doing quantum mechanics using only pictures of lines, squares, triangles and diamonds’. This picture calculus can be seen as a very substantial extension of Dirac’s notation, and has a purely algebraic counterpart in terms of so-called Strongly Compact Closed Categories (introduced by Abramsky and I in [3, 4]) which subsumes my Logic of Entanglement [11]. For a survey on the ‘what’, the ‘why ’ and the ‘hows ’ I refer to a previous set of lecture notes [12, 13]. In a last section we provide some pointers to the body of technical literature on the subject.

Overview This paper is written as background for a proposed Grand

Abstract. This article is a brief and subjective survey of quantum programming language research.

This thesis presents the semantics of quantum stacks and a functional quantum pro-gramming language, L-QPL. An operational semantics for L-QPL based on quantum stacks in the form of a term logic is developed and used as an interpretation of quan-tum circuits. The operational semantics is then extended to handle recursion and alge-braic datatypes. Recursion and datatypes are not concepts found in quantum circuits, but both are generally required for modern programming languages. The language L-QPL is introduced in a discussion and example format. Various example programs using both classical and quantum algorithms are used to illustrate features of the language. Details of the language, including handling of qubits, general data types and classical data are covered. The quantum stack machine is then presented. Supporting data for operation of the machine are introduced and the transitions induced by the machine’s instructions are given.