Abstract

A decade ago, with the first multiqubit quantum computing devices, the prevailing opinion was that a clear winner would emerge amongst them. Today, not only is there no clear winner, but there are even more viable hardware platforms and models of quantum computation that they can execute than ever before. As we approach the tail end of the NISQ era, we are seeing the emergence of numerous fundamentally different proposals of fault-tolerant, full-stack quantum computer architectures. The biggest challenge that quantum computer science faces is to take these “silos”, and assemble the pieces as necessary to build robust, practically useful quantum computers.

In this talk, we will dive into what it takes to achieve the "Write Once, Run Anywhere" paradigm in quantum computer science. We will focus on three pillars of semantic equivalence for quantum programs: 1) reconciling representations of quantum information, 2) computational reasoning for dynamic quantum protocols, and 3) zooming in and out of different abstraction layers. We will discuss examples of each pillar through advancements in quantum graphical calculi, quantum error correction, and quantum computer architectures.