rqm-core 0.1.4

Core quaternion, spinor, SU(2), and Bloch mathematics for the RQM Python ecosystem

RQM Core

Core quaternion, spinor, SU(2), and Bloch mathematics for the RQM Python ecosystem.

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🌐 RQM Platform

This repository is part of the RQM Technologies ecosystem.

→ Website: https://rqmtechnologies.com
→ Documentation: https://docs.rqmtechnologies.com

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Install

pip install rqm-core

rqm-core is the mathematical foundation layer. It has no RQM-level dependencies — only numpy at runtime.

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Where This Fits

rqm-core  →  rqm-compiler  →  rqm-qiskit / rqm-braket

rqm-core provides the canonical mathematical layer of the RQM ecosystem, including quaternion, spinor, Bloch, and SU(2) foundations. Higher-level packages (rqm-compiler, rqm-qiskit, rqm-braket) build on top of it.

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Next Steps

• Documentation: https://docs.rqmtechnologies.com
• Website: https://rqmtechnologies.com
• Next package in the stack: rqm-compiler

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Why This Package Exists

Higher-level RQM libraries (simulators, compilers, hardware adapters) all require a common, reliable layer of linear algebra and quantum geometry. rqm-core is that layer.

It provides a single, versioned source of truth for the mathematical primitives shared across the whole ecosystem: no duplication, no conflicting conventions, and no framework lock-in.

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Design Principles

Principle	What it means in practice
Tiny	Only implement primitives that are needed by ≥2 packages
Stable	Slow to change; breaking changes require a major version bump
Dependency-light	Only numpy at runtime
Canonical	One correct convention, clearly documented, used everywhere
Well-tested	Strong test coverage from the first commit

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What Is Included

• Quaternion primitives – Hamilton product, conjugate, inverse, axis-angle construction, SO(3) and SU(2) conversions
• Spinor helpers – normalization, norm, fidelity, spinor↔quaternion/SU(2) mappings
• SU(2) conversions – construction from quaternions and axis-angle, validation, round-trips
• Bloch sphere mappings – state↔Bloch, Bloch↔state, quaternion rotation to Bloch vector
• Matrix helpers – trace, determinant, conjugate transpose (dagger), norm, closeness checks
• Validation utilities – axis, complex pair, matrix shape, real number, tolerance checks

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Mathematical Conventions

The full reference lives in CONVENTIONS.md. The five items every downstream package needs to know:

1 · SU(2) Convention

A unit quaternion q = w + xi + yj + zk maps to SU(2) as:

U(q) = [[ w − iz ,  −y − ix ],
         [ y − ix ,   w + iz ]]

Implemented in Quaternion.to_su2_matrix(); inverted by su2_to_quaternion().

2 · Spinor Convention

States are written |ψ⟩ = α|0⟩ + β|1⟩ with |0⟩ as the north-pole computational-basis ground state. Amplitudes are always passed as the ordered pair (alpha, beta). Functions that require unit norm normalize internally.

3 · Bloch Sphere Parameterization

|ψ⟩ = cos(θ/2)|0⟩ + e^{iφ} sin(θ/2)|1⟩

theta ∈ [0, π] (polar/colatitude), phi ∈ [0, 2π) (azimuthal). |0⟩ → north pole (0, 0, +1); |1⟩ → south pole (0, 0, −1).

4 · Global Phase

q and −q represent the same rotation. spinor_to_quaternion encodes the rotation up to global phase — never rely on the sign of the scalar part.

5 · Default Tolerance and Axis Labels

All closeness checks default to atol = 1e-9 (absolute, no relative component). Axis labels are "x", "y", "z" (case-insensitive); all angles are in radians.

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What Is Intentionally Not Included

• Qiskit / PennyLane / Cirq adapters
• Backend execution or hardware drivers
• Circuit transpilation or compilation
• Plotting or visualisation
• Cloud workflow integration
• Notebook tooling
• Algorithm frameworks or optimisation workflows

Those belong in higher-level packages.

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Installation

pip install rqm-core

Development install (includes pytest and pytest-cov):

pip install "rqm-core[dev]"

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Ecosystem Role

rqm-core is the spine of the RQM Python ecosystem. It provides the single canonical implementation of all shared mathematical primitives so that downstream packages never need to re-implement or copy them.

How downstream packages declare the dependency (example pyproject.toml excerpt):

[project]
dependencies = [
    "rqm-core>=0.1.0",
]

How downstream packages import:

# rqm-qiskit, rqm-circuits, rqm-compiler, etc.
from rqm_core import Quaternion, axis_angle_to_su2, state_to_bloch

Contract for downstream maintainers:

• All conventions are defined in CONVENTIONS.md and must not be re-defined or overridden locally.
• Breaking changes to rqm-core require a major version bump (1.0.0, …).
• Any primitive needed by two or more packages belongs here, not in the individual packages.

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Quickstart

from rqm_core import Quaternion, state_to_bloch, axis_angle_to_su2
import math

# 90° rotation around Y
q = Quaternion.from_axis_angle("y", math.pi / 2)
print(q)
# Quaternion(0.7071..., 0.0, 0.7071..., 0.0)

# SU(2) matrix directly from axis-angle
print(axis_angle_to_su2("y", math.pi / 2))

# |+⟩ state on the Bloch sphere → equator at (1, 0, 0)
c = 1 / math.sqrt(2)
x, y, z = state_to_bloch(c, c)
print(x, y, z)  # 1.0  0.0  0.0

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Package Structure

rqm-core/
  CONVENTIONS.md            – canonical mathematical conventions reference
  pyproject.toml            – package metadata and build config
  src/rqm_core/
    __init__.py      – canonical public API (import everything from here)
    py.typed         – PEP 561 marker (enables type checking in downstream packages)
    quaternion.py    – Quaternion class (Hamilton algebra, SO(3)/SU(2) conversions)
    spinor.py        – spinor normalization, fidelity, spinor↔quaternion/SU(2)
    su2.py           – SU(2) construction, validation, quaternion round-trips
    bloch.py         – Bloch sphere mappings and validation
    linalg.py        – matrix helpers (dagger, trace, determinant, closeness)
    validation.py    – shared validation helpers (axis, matrix shape, tolerances)
    types.py         – shared type aliases (ComplexVector2, BlochVector, SU2Matrix, …)
    utils.py         – small math utilities (angle_wrap, safe_norm, is_finite_*)

  tests/
    test_quaternion.py
    test_spinor.py
    test_su2.py
    test_bloch.py
    test_linalg.py
    test_utils.py
    test_validation.py
    test_public_api.py

  examples/
    quaternion_basics.py    – quaternion construction, composition, conversion
    spinor_basics.py        – spinor normalization, Bloch mapping, fidelity
    su2_bloch_demo.py       – axis-angle → SU(2) → Bloch pipeline
    bloch_mapping_demo.py   – canonical Bloch vectors and round-trip checks
    su2_rotation_demo.py    – SU(2) construction and quaternion round-trip

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Testing

# Install the package in editable mode with test dependencies
pip install -e ".[dev]"

# Run the full test suite
pytest

# Run with coverage report
pytest --cov=rqm_core --cov-report=term-missing

# Run a single test file
pytest tests/test_quaternion.py -v

# Run only the public-API contract tests
pytest tests/test_public_api.py -v

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Architectural Notes

• su2.is_unitary is a thin domain-scoped shim over linalg.is_unitary. Both exist intentionally: linalg.is_unitary is the general-purpose helper; su2.is_unitary is the public entry point for SU(2)-context callers and is what rqm_core.is_unitary resolves to in the top-level API.

• q and −q represent the same rotation. Round-trip conversions q → SU(2) → q are tested against both q and −q. Downstream code must never compare quaternion scalar parts for sign equality.

• The src/ layout means rqm_core is only importable after installation (pip install -e .). Running tests directly without installing first will produce ModuleNotFoundError.

• py.typed is included in the installed wheel (via [tool.setuptools.package-data]), enabling mypy and pyright in any package that depends on rqm-core.

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Roadmap

rqm-core is intended to remain small and stable while higher-level packages evolve around it.

Planned additions for future minor versions:

• Quaternion SLERP (spherical linear interpolation)
• SO(3) rotation-matrix ↔ quaternion round-trip helpers
• Mixed-state density matrix utilities
• SU(2) Lie-algebra generators and exponential map
• Type stub files (.pyi) for IDE completions

No Qiskit or framework dependencies will ever be added to this package.