A Dynamic Intermediate Representation for Hybrid Quantum-Classical Programs

Abstract:Quantum compilers typically follow the circuit model, representing programs as fixed sequences of gates. This static view breaks down in hybrid quantum-classical applications, where gate choices depend on runtime data or measurement results. We introduce a new Intermediate Representation (IR) that elevates gates to first-class values, enabling their dynamic creation, composition, and control. This unified representation allows classical computation to steer quantum behaviour, capturing phenomena including stochastic gate selection, adaptive error correction, and measurement-driven computation within a single framework. Case studies in noise modelling, randomised compilation, error correction, and measurement-based quantum computing show that our IR expresses these programs compactly and supports optimisations that were not possible in the circuit model. Evaluation on a benchmark suite of hybrid quantum-classical programs indicates that our IR represents programs compactly and facilitates compiler analysis and transformation.

Programming Languages (cs.PL); Quantum Physics (quant-ph)

arXiv:2609.01037 [cs.PL]

(or arXiv:2609.01037v1 [cs.PL] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.01037 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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