Concrete Categorical Model of a Quantum Circuit Description Language with Measurement

Abstract: In this paper, we introduce dynamic lifting to a quantum circuit-description language, following the Proto-Quipper language approach. Dynamic lifting allows programs to transfer the result of measuring quantum data -- qubits -- into classical data -- booleans -- . We propose a type system and an operational semantics for the language and we state safety properties. Next, we introduce a concrete categorical semantics for the proposed language, basing our approach on a recent model from Rios&Selinger for Proto-Quipper-M. Our approach is to construct on top of a concrete category of circuits with measurements a Kleisli category, capturing as a side effect the action of retrieving classical content out of a quantum memory. We then show a soundness result for this semantics.