3,017 research outputs found
Applying quantitative semantics to higher-order quantum computing
Finding a denotational semantics for higher order quantum computation is a
long-standing problem in the semantics of quantum programming languages. Most
past approaches to this problem fell short in one way or another, either
limiting the language to an unusably small finitary fragment, or giving up
important features of quantum physics such as entanglement. In this paper, we
propose a denotational semantics for a quantum lambda calculus with recursion
and an infinite data type, using constructions from quantitative semantics of
linear logic
Inductive Definition and Domain Theoretic Properties of Fully Abstract
A construction of fully abstract typed models for PCF and PCF^+ (i.e., PCF +
"parallel conditional function"), respectively, is presented. It is based on
general notions of sequential computational strategies and wittingly consistent
non-deterministic strategies introduced by the author in the seventies.
Although these notions of strategies are old, the definition of the fully
abstract models is new, in that it is given level-by-level in the finite type
hierarchy. To prove full abstraction and non-dcpo domain theoretic properties
of these models, a theory of computational strategies is developed. This is
also an alternative and, in a sense, an analogue to the later game strategy
semantics approaches of Abramsky, Jagadeesan, and Malacaria; Hyland and Ong;
and Nickau. In both cases of PCF and PCF^+ there are definable universal
(surjective) functionals from numerical functions to any given type,
respectively, which also makes each of these models unique up to isomorphism.
Although such models are non-omega-complete and therefore not continuous in the
traditional terminology, they are also proved to be sequentially complete (a
weakened form of omega-completeness), "naturally" continuous (with respect to
existing directed "pointwise", or "natural" lubs) and also "naturally"
omega-algebraic and "naturally" bounded complete -- appropriate generalisation
of the ordinary notions of domain theory to the case of non-dcpos.Comment: 50 page
Decorated proofs for computational effects: Exceptions
We define a proof system for exceptions which is close to the syntax for
exceptions, in the sense that the exceptions do not appear explicitly in the
type of any expression. This proof system is sound with respect to the intended
denotational semantics of exceptions. With this inference system we prove
several properties of exceptions.Comment: 11 page
Analyzing logic programs with dynamic scheduling
Traditional logic programming languages, such as Prolog, use a fixed left-to-right atom scheduling rule. Recent logic programming languages, however, usually provide more flexible scheduling in which computation generally proceeds leftto- right but in which some calis are dynamically
"delayed" until their arguments are sufRciently instantiated
to allow the cali to run efficiently. Such dynamic scheduling has a significant cost. We give a framework for the global analysis of logic programming languages with dynamic scheduling and show that program analysis based on this framework supports optimizations which remove much
of the overhead of dynamic scheduling
Process Algebras
Process Algebras are mathematically rigorous languages with well defined semantics that permit describing and verifying properties of concurrent communicating systems.
They can be seen as models of processes, regarded as agents that act and interact continuously with other similar agents and with their common environment. The agents may be real-world objects (even people), or they may be artifacts, embodied perhaps in computer hardware or software systems.
Many different approaches (operational, denotational, algebraic) are taken for describing the meaning of processes. However, the operational approach is the reference one. By relying on the so called Structural Operational Semantics (SOS), labelled transition systems are built and composed by using the different operators of the many different process algebras. Behavioral equivalences are used to abstract from unwanted details and identify those systems that react similarly to external
experiments
Alternation in Quantum Programming: From Superposition of Data to Superposition of Programs
We extract a novel quantum programming paradigm - superposition of programs -
from the design idea of a popular class of quantum algorithms, namely quantum
walk-based algorithms. The generality of this paradigm is guaranteed by the
universality of quantum walks as a computational model. A new quantum
programming language QGCL is then proposed to support the paradigm of
superposition of programs. This language can be seen as a quantum extension of
Dijkstra's GCL (Guarded Command Language). Surprisingly, alternation in GCL
splits into two different notions in the quantum setting: classical alternation
(of quantum programs) and quantum alternation, with the latter being introduced
in QGCL for the first time. Quantum alternation is the key program construct
for realizing the paradigm of superposition of programs.
The denotational semantics of QGCL are defined by introducing a new
mathematical tool called the guarded composition of operator-valued functions.
Then the weakest precondition semantics of QGCL can straightforwardly derived.
Another very useful program construct in realizing the quantum programming
paradigm of superposition of programs, called quantum choice, can be easily
defined in terms of quantum alternation. The relation between quantum choices
and probabilistic choices is clarified through defining the notion of local
variables. We derive a family of algebraic laws for QGCL programs that can be
used in program verification, transformations and compilation. The expressive
power of QGCL is illustrated by several examples where various variants and
generalizations of quantum walks are conveniently expressed using quantum
alternation and quantum choice. We believe that quantum programming with
quantum alternation and choice will play an important role in further
exploiting the power of quantum computing.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1209.437
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