English

With a Few Square Roots, Quantum Computing is as Easy as {\Pi}

Programming Languages 2024-06-17 v1

Abstract

Rig groupoids provide a semantic model of \PiLang, a universal classical reversible programming language over finite types. We prove that extending rig groupoids with just two maps and three equations about them results in a model of quantum computing that is computationally universal and equationally sound and complete for a variety of gate sets. The first map corresponds to an 8th8^{\text{th}} root of the identity morphism on the unit 11. The second map corresponds to a square root of the symmetry on 1+11+1. As square roots are generally not unique and can sometimes even be trivial, the maps are constrained to satisfy a nondegeneracy axiom, which we relate to the Euler decomposition of the Hadamard gate. The semantic construction is turned into an extension of \PiLang, called \SPiLang, that is a computationally universal quantum programming language equipped with an equational theory that is sound and complete with respect to the Clifford gate set, the standard gate set of Clifford+T restricted to 2\le 2 qubits, and the computationally universal Gaussian Clifford+T gate set.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2310.14056,
  title  = {With a Few Square Roots, Quantum Computing is as Easy as {\Pi}},
  author = {Jacques Carette and Chris Heunen and Robin Kaarsgaard and Amr Sabry},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2310.14056},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:57:42.146Z