An Open-Source, Industrial-Strength Optimizing Compiler for Quantum Programs

Quilcis an open-source, optimizing compiler for gate-based quantum programs written in Quil or QASM, two popular quantum programming languages. The compiler was designed with attention toward NISQ-era quantum computers, specifically recognizing that each quantum gate has a non-negligible and often irrecoverable cost toward a program's successful execution.Quilc's primary goal is to make authoring quantum software a simpler exercise by making architectural details less burdensome to the author. UsingQuilcallows one to write programs faster while usually not compromising-and indeed sometimes improving-their execution fidelity on a given hardware architecture. In this paper, we describe many of the principles behindQuilc's design, and demonstrate the compiler with various examples.