Abstract. This work in progress report proposes a new metric for estimating nearest neighbor cost at the reversible circuit level. This is in contrast to existing literature where nearest neighbor constraints are usually considered at the quantum circuit level. In order to define the metric, investigations on a state-of-the-art reversible to quantum mapping scheme have been conducted. From the retrieved information, a proper estimation to be used as a cost metric has been obtained. Using the metric, it becomes possible for the first time to optimize a reversible circuit with respect to nearest neighbor constraints
