Gleipnir: Toward Practical Error Analysis for Quantum Programs (Extended Version)

Abstract: Practical error analysis is essential for the design, optimization, and evaluation of Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum(NISQ) computing. However, bounding errors in quantum programs is a grand challenge, because the effects of quantum errors depend on exponentially large quantum states. In this work, we present Gleipnir, a novel methodology toward practically computing verified error bounds in quantum programs. Gleipnir introduces the $(\hat\rho,\delta)$-diamond norm, an error metric constrained by a quantum predicate consisting of the approximate state $\hat\rho$ and its distance $\delta$ to the ideal state $\rho$. This predicate $(\hat\rho,\delta)$ can be computed adaptively using tensor networks based on the Matrix Product States. Gleipnir features a lightweight logic for reasoning about error bounds in noisy quantum programs, based on the $(\hat\rho,\delta)$-diamond norm metric. Our experimental results show that Gleipnir is able to efficiently generate tight error bounds for real-world quantum programs with 10 to 100 qubits, and can be used to evaluate the error mitigation performance of quantum compiler transformations.