Research from FIT focusing on the verification of quantum computations was selected among the most interesting works in the field of computer science

An article entitled An Automata-Based Framework for Verification and Bug Hunting in Quantum Circuits, to which Ondřej Lengál from the VeriFIT group made a significant contribution, was selected as a research highlight for the journal Communications of the ACM. The research highlights section usually selects several of the most interesting results from tens of thousands of articles submitted annually to ACM conferences across all areas of computer science. This is the first time that an article with a Czech affiliation has received this privilege.

The cited article introduces a new approach to the automatic verification of quantum computations using automata theory, thus creating a bridge between these two research areas (quantum computing and automata). Automata are used here for the compact representation of complex sets of quantum states. Follow-up work introduces variants of these automata that allow the representation of sets of quantum states with several dimensions of infinity (such as the number of qubits or potential amplitude values) and the verification of parametric quantum programs (e.g., that the algorithm works correctly for any number of qubits).

The article was written in collaboration with researchers from Academia Sinica in Taiwan (Republic of China), with whom the VeriFIT group has been actively collaborating for more than 15 years. More information on Ondřej Lengál's research and the challenges associated with quantum computing can be found here.