Work

Quantum Uncomputation of Clean and Dirty Ancilla Qubits

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Automatic uncomputation aims to provide programming-language-level support to facilitate the correct and safe use of ancilla qubits in quantum computing, but efforts have only been made for clean ancillas, leaving dirty ancillas unexplored. We present a unified formalization of the uncomputation of both clean and dirty ancillas. For the first time, we prove that checking the existence of uncomputation is coNP-hard. We introduce two complementary synthesis-oriented existence checking methods: a syntax-directed static reasoning system and a rewrite-based normalization procedure (RwUn), together forming a top-down pipeline. We implement RwUn in Qiskit. Compared to the state-of-the-art Reqomp, RwUn achieves 100% coverage on complex-dependency benchmarks, twice the coverage on random classical circuits, and about 50% coverage on random quantum circuits beyond the scope of existing methods, demonstrating broader applicability.

Source: Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages

DOI: 10.1145/3839528

Authors: Chenke Liu, Li Zhou, Boning Meng

Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Software, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Language: English

Topic: Quantum Computing Algorithms and Architecture

Subfield: Artificial Intelligence

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W7202216494

FWCI:

Cites:

Cited by:

Related to: