Session: First International Workshop on Quantum Computing Software

Visualizing High-Level Quantum Programs

Wednesday, November 11, 2020

12:00 PM – 12:20 PM ET

Channel: Track 3

Author/Presenter(s)

MB

Megan Brown

Microsoft Corporation, United States of America
CG

Christopher Granade

Microsoft Corporation, United States of America
BH

Bettina Heim

Microsoft Corporation, United States of America
RK

Raphael Koh

Microsoft Corporation, United States of America
RL

Reem Larabi

Microsoft Corporation, United States of America
SM

Sarah Marshall

Microsoft Corporation, United States of America
AP

Andres Paz

Microsoft Corporation, United States of America
RS

Ryan Shaffer

Microsoft Corporation, United States of America

Complex quantum programs will require programming frameworks with many of the same features as classical software development, including tools to visualize the behavior of programs and diagnose any issues encountered. We present new visualization tools being added to the Microsoft Quantum Development Kit (QDK) for visualizing the execution flow of a quantum program at each step during its execution. These tools allow for interactive visualization of the control flow of a high-level quantum program by tracking and rendering individual execution paths through the program. Also presented is the capability to visualize the states of the quantum registers at each step during the execution of a quantum program, which allows for more insight into the detailed behavior of a given quantum algorithm. We also discuss the extensibility of these tools, allowing developers to write custom visualizers to depict states and operations for their high-level quantum programs. We believe that these tools have potential value for experienced developers and researchers, as well as for students and newcomers to the field who are looking to explore and understand quantum algorithms interactively.