dqc_simulator 0.2.4

An easy-to-use but flexible distributed quantum computing simulator.

dqc_simulator

An easy-to-use distributed quantum computing simulator

With many simulators, specifying a quantum algorithm is as easy as specifying a quantum circuit. Why can't things be as simple for distributed quantum computers (DQCs)? With dqc_simulator they can! A python package built on top of the more general quantum network simulation library NetSquid, dqc_simulator allows users to simply simulate quantum circuits on near-arbitrary, user-specifiable DQC hardware. The package aims to retain the flexibility and power of NetSquid while automatically handling some of the messier details of applying NetSquid to the DQC setting.

Key features:

1. Easy-to-use interface for specifying distributed quantum circuits.
2. Automatic partitioning of monolithic (single-processor) quantum circuits between quantum processing units (QPUs). Arbitrary algorithms for doing this can be specified by the user if desired, using the DQC circuit interface. Circuits can be specified as a list of tuples or as a .qasm file.
3. Automatic management of remote gates and communication qubits.
4. Automatic compilation using pre-made compilers. The user can also easily specify their own.

Requirements

• python 3.9
• NetSquid 1.1.7. See NetSquid.
• NetSquid-PhysLayer 4.3.0. See link.
• pydynaa>=1.0.2

Note that the NetSquid requirement is not enforced at

Installation instructions for users

First, if you do not already have one, create a NetSquid account using the instructions here. Much of the package's functionality relies on NetSquid and so this is important to make full use of the package. However, you do not need install NetSquid at this stage because it will be done automatically in the next step. At the end of the NetSquid account creation process you should have a username and password. In what follows replace <USERNAME> and <PASSWORD> with the username and password for your Netsquid account.

With a NetSquid account created, dqc_simulator and all of its dependencies can be installed with the command:

pip install --extra-index-url https://<USERNAME>:<PASSWORD>@pypi.netsquid.org dqc_simulator

where <USERNAME> and <PASSWORD> are the username and password for your NetSquid account.

If all of the dependencies have already been installed, then you can install dqc_simulator using the command

pip install dqc_simulator

because the --extra-index-url was only required by the dependencies. dqc_simulator in of itself does not require an account.

Installation instructions for developers

To install the package from source use the command

git clone https://github.com/km-campbell/dqc_simulator.git

To make your NetSquid account credentials available during package installation, use the commands

export UV_INDEX_NETSQUID_USERNAME=<USERNAME>
export UV_INDEX_NETSQUID_PASSWORD=<PASSWORD>

where <USERNAME> and <PASSWORD> are the username and password for your NetSquid account. You can also store your NetSquid authentication details using any other method of choice compatible with the uv package manager.

Once your NetSquid authentication credentials are made available, install dqc_simulator using the command

pip install dqc_simulator

Documentation

The documentation is available via readthedocs here.

Alternatively, the project documentation can be built locally by cloning the repository, as detailed above, and then using the commands

cd docs
make html

A version of the documentation will then be available in the docs/build directory. Within that directory open index.html to access the documentation.

Acknowledgements

I acknowledge the use of modified code from nuqasm2 in the qasm2ast module subject to the Apache 2.0 license included above under the name LICENSE4qasm2ast_base_code. It is explicitly stated in any modules where modified nuqasm2 code is used.