Q# (pronounced as Q sharp) is a domain-specific programming language used for expressing quantum algorithms.[2] It was initially released to the public by Microsoft as part of the Quantum Development Kit.[3]

Q#
ParadigmQuantum, functional, imperative
Designed byMicrosoft Research (quantum architectures and computation group; QuArC)
DeveloperMicrosoft
First appearedDecember 11, 2017 (2017-12-11)
Typing disciplineStatic, strong
PlatformCommon Language Infrastructure
LicenseMIT License[1]
Filename extensions.qs
Websitedocs.microsoft.com/en-us/quantum
Influenced by
C#, F#, Python

History

Historically, Microsoft Research had two teams interested in quantum computing: the QuArC team based in Redmond[which?],[4] directed by Krysta Svore, that explored the construction of quantum circuitry, and Station Q initially located in Santa Barbara and directed by Michael Freedman, that explored topological quantum computing.[5][6]

During a Microsoft Ignite Keynote on September 26, 2017, Microsoft announced that they were going to release a new programming language geared specifically towards quantum computers.[7] On December 11, 2017, Microsoft released Q# as a part of the Quantum Development Kit.[3]

At Build 2019, Microsoft announced that it would be open-sourcing the Quantum Development Kit, including its Q# compilers and simulators.[8]

Bettina Heim currently leads the Q# language development effort.[9][10]

Usage

Q# is available as a separately downloaded extension for Visual Studio,[11] but it can also be run as an independent tool from the command line or Visual Studio Code. The Quantum Development Kit ships with a quantum simulator which is capable of running Q#.[12]

In order to invoke the quantum simulator, another .NET programming language, usually C#, is used, which provides the (classical) input data for the simulator and reads the (classical) output data from the simulator.[13]

Features

A primary feature of Q# is the ability to create and use qubits for algorithms. As a consequence, some of the most prominent features of Q# are the ability to entangle and introduce superpositioning to qubits via Controlled NOT gates and Hadamard gates, respectively, as well as Toffoli Gates, Pauli X, Y, Z Gate, and many more which are used for a variety of operations; see the list at the article on quantum logic gates.[14]

The hardware stack that will eventually come together with Q# is expected to implement Qubits as topological qubits. The quantum simulator that is shipped with the Quantum Development Kit today is capable of processing up to 32 qubits on a user machine and up to 40 qubits on Azure.[15]

Documentation and resources

Currently, the resources available for Q# are scarce, but the official documentation is published: Microsoft Developer Network: Q#. Microsoft Quantum Github repository is also a large collection of sample programs implementing a variety of Quantum algorithms and their tests.

Microsoft has also hosted a Quantum Coding contest on Codeforces, called Microsoft Q# Coding Contest - Codeforces, and also provided related material to help answer the questions in the blog posts, plus the detailed solutions in the tutorials.

Microsoft hosts a set of learning exercises to help learn Q# on GitHub: microsoft/QuantumKatas with links to resources, and answers to the problems.

Syntax

Q# is syntactically related to both C# and F# yet also has some significant differences.

Similarities with C#

  • Uses namespace for code isolation
  • All statements end with a ;
  • Curly braces are used for statements of scope
  • Single line comments are done using //
  • Variable data types such as Int Double String and Bool are similar, although capitalised (and Int is 64-bit)[16]
  • Qubits are allocated and disposed inside a using block.
  • Lambda functions are defined using the => operator.
  • Results are returned using the return keyword.

Similarities with F#

  • Variables are declared using either let or mutable[2]
  • First-order functions
  • Modules, which are imported using the open keyword
  • The datatype is declared after the variable name
  • The range operator ..
  • for … in loops
  • Every operation/function has a return value, rather than void. Instead of void, an empty Tuple () is returned.
  • Definition of record datatypes (using the newtype keyword, instead of type).

Differences

  • Functions are declared using the function keyword
  • Operations on the quantum computer are declared using the operation keyword
  • Lack of multiline comments
  • Asserts instead of throwing exceptions
  • Documentation is written in Markdown instead of XML-based documentation tags

Example

The following source code is a multiplexer from the official Microsoft Q# library repository.

// Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation.// Licensed under the MIT License.namespace Microsoft.Quantum.Canon {    open Microsoft.Quantum.Intrinsic;    open Microsoft.Quantum.Arithmetic;    open Microsoft.Quantum.Arrays;    open Microsoft.Quantum.Diagnostics;    open Microsoft.Quantum.Math;    /// # Summary    /// Applies a multiply-controlled unitary operation $U$ that applies a    /// unitary $V_j$ when controlled by n-qubit number state $\ket{j}$.    ///    /// $U = \sum^{N-1}_{j=0}\ket{j}\bra{j}\otimes V_j$.    ///    /// # Input    /// ## unitaryGenerator    /// A tuple where the first element `Int` is the number of unitaries $N$,    /// and the second element `(Int -> ('T => () is Adj + Ctl))`    /// is a function that takes an integer $j$ in $[0,N-1]$ and outputs the unitary    /// operation $V_j$.    ///    /// ## index    /// $n$-qubit control register that encodes number states $\ket{j}$ in    /// little-endian format.    ///    /// ## target    /// Generic qubit register that $V_j$ acts on.    ///    /// # Remarks    /// `coefficients` will be padded with identity elements if    /// fewer than $2^n$ are specified. This implementation uses    /// $n-1$ auxiliary qubits.    ///    /// # References    /// - [ *Andrew M. Childs, Dmitri Maslov, Yunseong Nam, Neil J. Ross, Yuan Su*,    ///      arXiv:1711.10980](https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.10980)    operation MultiplexOperationsFromGenerator<'T>(unitaryGenerator : (Int, (Int -> ('T => Unit is Adj + Ctl))), index: LittleEndian, target: 'T) : Unit is Ctl + Adj {        let (nUnitaries, unitaryFunction) = unitaryGenerator;        let unitaryGeneratorWithOffset = (nUnitaries, 0, unitaryFunction);        if Length(index!) == 0 {            fail "MultiplexOperations failed. Number of index qubits must be greater than 0.";        }        if nUnitaries > 0 {            let auxiliary = [];            Adjoint MultiplexOperationsFromGeneratorImpl(unitaryGeneratorWithOffset, auxiliary, index, target);        }    }    /// # Summary    /// Implementation step of `MultiplexOperationsFromGenerator`.    /// # See Also    /// - Microsoft.Quantum.Canon.MultiplexOperationsFromGenerator    internal operation MultiplexOperationsFromGeneratorImpl<'T>(unitaryGenerator : (Int, Int, (Int -> ('T => Unit is Adj + Ctl))), auxiliary: Qubit[], index: LittleEndian, target: 'T)    : Unit {        body (...) {            let nIndex = Length(index!);            let nStates = 2^nIndex;            let (nUnitaries, unitaryOffset, unitaryFunction) = unitaryGenerator;            let nUnitariesLeft = MinI(nUnitaries, nStates / 2);            let nUnitariesRight = MinI(nUnitaries, nStates);            let leftUnitaries = (nUnitariesLeft, unitaryOffset, unitaryFunction);            let rightUnitaries = (nUnitariesRight - nUnitariesLeft, unitaryOffset + nUnitariesLeft, unitaryFunction);            let newControls = LittleEndian(Most(index!));            if nUnitaries > 0 {                if Length(auxiliary) == 1 and nIndex == 0 {                    // Termination case                    (Controlled Adjoint (unitaryFunction(unitaryOffset)))(auxiliary, target);                } elif Length(auxiliary) == 0 and nIndex >= 1 {                    // Start case                    let newauxiliary = Tail(index!);                    if nUnitariesRight > 0 {                        MultiplexOperationsFromGeneratorImpl(rightUnitaries, [newauxiliary], newControls, target);                    }                    within {                        X(newauxiliary);                    } apply {                        MultiplexOperationsFromGeneratorImpl(leftUnitaries, [newauxiliary], newControls, target);                    }                } else {                    // Recursion that reduces nIndex by 1 and sets Length(auxiliary) to 1.                    let controls = [Tail(index!)] + auxiliary;                    use newauxiliary = Qubit();                    use andauxiliary = Qubit[MaxI(0, Length(controls) - 2)];                    within {                        ApplyAndChain(andauxiliary, controls, newauxiliary);                    } apply {                        if nUnitariesRight > 0 {                            MultiplexOperationsFromGeneratorImpl(rightUnitaries, [newauxiliary], newControls, target);                        }                        within {                            (Controlled X)(auxiliary, newauxiliary);                        } apply {                            MultiplexOperationsFromGeneratorImpl(leftUnitaries, [newauxiliary], newControls, target);                        }                    }                }            }        }        adjoint auto;        controlled (controlRegister, ...) {            MultiplexOperationsFromGeneratorImpl(unitaryGenerator, auxiliary + controlRegister, index, target);        }        adjoint controlled auto;    }    /// # Summary    /// Applies multiply-controlled unitary operation $U$ that applies a    /// unitary $V_j$ when controlled by n-qubit number state $\ket{j}$.    ///    /// $U = \sum^{N-1}_{j=0}\ket{j}\bra{j}\otimes V_j$.    ///    /// # Input    /// ## unitaryGenerator    /// A tuple where the first element `Int` is the number of unitaries $N$,    /// and the second element `(Int -> ('T => () is Adj + Ctl))`    /// is a function that takes an integer $j$ in $[0,N-1]$ and outputs the unitary    /// operation $V_j$.    ///    /// ## index    /// $n$-qubit control register that encodes number states $\ket{j}$ in    /// little-endian format.    ///    /// ## target    /// Generic qubit register that $V_j$ acts on.    ///    /// # Remarks    /// `coefficients` will be padded with identity elements if    /// fewer than $2^n$ are specified. This version is implemented    /// directly by looping through n-controlled unitary operators.    operation MultiplexOperationsBruteForceFromGenerator<'T>(unitaryGenerator : (Int, (Int -> ('T => Unit is Adj + Ctl))), index: LittleEndian, target: 'T)    : Unit is Adj + Ctl {        let nIndex = Length(index!);        let nStates = 2^nIndex;        let (nUnitaries, unitaryFunction) = unitaryGenerator;        for idxOp in 0..MinI(nStates,nUnitaries) - 1 {            (ControlledOnInt(idxOp, unitaryFunction(idxOp)))(index!, target);        }    }    /// # Summary    /// Returns a multiply-controlled unitary operation $U$ that applies a    /// unitary $V_j$ when controlled by n-qubit number state $\ket{j}$.    ///    /// $U = \sum^{2^n-1}_{j=0}\ket{j}\bra{j}\otimes V_j$.    ///    /// # Input    /// ## unitaryGenerator    /// A tuple where the first element `Int` is the number of unitaries $N$,    /// and the second element `(Int -> ('T => () is Adj + Ctl))`    /// is a function that takes an integer $j$ in $[0,N-1]$ and outputs the unitary    /// operation $V_j$.    ///    /// # Output    /// A multiply-controlled unitary operation $U$ that applies unitaries    /// described by `unitaryGenerator`.    ///    /// # See Also    /// - Microsoft.Quantum.Canon.MultiplexOperationsFromGenerator    function MultiplexerFromGenerator(unitaryGenerator : (Int, (Int -> (Qubit[] => Unit is Adj + Ctl)))) : ((LittleEndian, Qubit[]) => Unit is Adj + Ctl) {        return MultiplexOperationsFromGenerator(unitaryGenerator, _, _);    }    /// # Summary    /// Returns a multiply-controlled unitary operation $U$ that applies a    /// unitary $V_j$ when controlled by n-qubit number state $\ket{j}$.    ///    /// $U = \sum^{2^n-1}_{j=0}\ket{j}\bra{j}\otimes V_j$.    ///    /// # Input    /// ## unitaryGenerator    /// A tuple where the first element `Int` is the number of unitaries $N$,    /// and the second element `(Int -> ('T => () is Adj + Ctl))`    /// is a function that takes an integer $j$ in $[0,N-1]$ and outputs the unitary    /// operation $V_j$.    ///    /// # Output    /// A multiply-controlled unitary operation $U$ that applies unitaries    /// described by `unitaryGenerator`.    ///    /// # See Also    /// - Microsoft.Quantum.Canon.MultiplexOperationsBruteForceFromGenerator    function MultiplexerBruteForceFromGenerator(unitaryGenerator : (Int, (Int -> (Qubit[] => Unit is Adj + Ctl)))) : ((LittleEndian, Qubit[]) => Unit is Adj + Ctl) {        return MultiplexOperationsBruteForceFromGenerator(unitaryGenerator, _, _);    }    /// # Summary    /// Computes a chain of AND gates    ///    /// # Description    /// The auxiliary qubits to compute temporary results must be specified explicitly.    /// The length of that register is `Length(ctrlRegister) - 2`, if there are at least    /// two controls, otherwise the length is 0.    internal operation ApplyAndChain(auxRegister : Qubit[], ctrlRegister : Qubit[], target : Qubit)    : Unit is Adj {        if Length(ctrlRegister) == 0 {            X(target);        } elif Length(ctrlRegister) == 1 {            CNOT(Head(ctrlRegister), target);        } else {            EqualityFactI(Length(auxRegister), Length(ctrlRegister));            let controls1 = ctrlRegister[0..0] + auxRegister;            let controls2 = Rest(ctrlRegister);            let targets = auxRegister + [target];            ApplyToEachA(ApplyAnd, Zipped3(controls1, controls2, targets));        }    }}


References

External links