StrawberryFields 0.12.1

Open source library for continuous-variable quantum computation

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Strawberry Fields is a full-stack Python library for designing, simulating, and optimizing continuous variable quantum optical circuits.

Features

• An open-source software architecture for photonic quantum computing

• Includes high-level functions for solving practical problems including graph and network optimization, machine learning and chemistry.

• Includes quantum simulators implemented using NumPy and TensorFlow—with built-in quantum compilation

• Future releases will target experimental backends, including photonic quantum computing chips

• Powers the Strawberry Fields Interactive web app, which allows anyone to run a quantum computing simulation via drag and drop

Installation

Strawberry Fields requires Python version 3.5, 3.6, or 3.7 (3.8 is currently not support). Installation of Strawberry Fields, as well as all dependencies, can be done using pip:

pip install strawberryfields

TensorFlow support

To use Strawberry Fields with TensorFlow, version 1.3 of TensorFlow is required. This can be installed alongside Strawberry Fields as follows:

pip install strawberryfields tensorflow==1.3

Or, to install Strawberry Fields and TensorFlow with GPU and CUDA support:

pip install strawberryfields tensorflow-gpu==1.3

Note that TensorFlow version 1.3 is only supported on Python versions less than 3.7.

Getting started

To see Strawberry Fields in action immediately, try out our Strawberry Fields Interactive web application. Prepare your initial states, drag and drop gates, and watch your simulation run in real time right in your web browser.

For getting started with writing your own Strawberry Fields code, follow the installation page to get Strawberry Fields up and running, then jump over to the tutorials to see what you can do.

Users interested in applications of photonic quantum computers should check out the Graphs and Networks, Machine Learning and Chemistry pages. Those wanting to dig deeper into the design of circuits can head to the quantum circuits page.

Developers can head to the development guide to see how they can contribute to Strawberry Fields.

Contributing to Strawberry Fields

We welcome contributions - simply fork the Strawberry Fields repository, and then make a pull request containing your contribution. All contributors to Strawberry Fields will be listed as authors on the releases.

We also encourage bug reports, suggestions for new features and enhancements, and even links to cool projects or applications built on Strawberry Fields.

See our contributions page for more details, and then check out some of the Strawberry Fields challenges for some inspiration.

Authors

Nathan Killoran, Josh Izaac, Nicolás Quesada, Ville Bergholm, Matthew Amy, and Christian Weedbrook.

If you are doing research using Strawberry Fields, please cite our papers:

Nathan Killoran, Josh Izaac, Nicolás Quesada, Ville Bergholm, Matthew Amy, and Christian Weedbrook. “Strawberry Fields: A Software Platform for Photonic Quantum Computing”, Quantum, 3, 129 (2019).

Thomas R. Bromley, Juan Miguel Arrazola, Soran Jahangiri, Josh Izaac, Nicolás Quesada, Alain Delgado Gran, Maria Schuld, Jeremy Swinarton, Zeid Zabaneh, and Nathan Killoran. “Applications of Near-Term Photonic Quantum Computers: Software and Algorithms”, arxiv:1912.07634 (2019).

Support

• Source Code: https://github.com/XanaduAI/strawberryfields

• Issue Tracker: https://github.com/XanaduAI/strawberryfields/issues

If you are having issues, please let us know by posting the issue on our Github issue tracker.

We also have a Slack channel and a discussion forum - come join the discussion and chat with our Strawberry Fields team.

License

Strawberry Fields is free and open source, released under the Apache License, Version 2.0.