Tutorial

Getting started

To start using ProjectQ, simply run

python -m pip install --user projectq

or, alternatively, clone/download this repo (e.g., to your /home directory) and run

cd /home/projectq
python -m pip install --user .

Note

The setup will try to build a C++-Simulator, which is much faster than the Python implementation. If it fails, you may use the –without-cppsimulator parameter, i.e.,

python -m pip install --user --global-option=--without-cppsimulator .

and the framework will use the slow Python simulator instead. Note that this only works if the installation has been tried once without the –without-cppsimulator parameter and hence all requirements are now installed. See the instructions below if you want to run larger simulations. The Python simulator works perfectly fine for the small examples (e.g., running Shor’s algorithm for factoring 15 or 21).

Note

If building the C++-Simulator does not work out of the box, consider specifying a different compiler. For example:

env CC=g++-5 python -m pip install --user projectq

Please note that the compiler you specify must support C++11!

Note

Please use pip version v6.1.0 or higher as this ensures that dependencies are installed in the correct order.

Detailed instructions and OS-specific hints

Ubuntu:

After having installed the build tools (for g++):

sudo apt-get install build-essential

You only need to install Python (and the package manager). For version 3, run

sudo apt-get install python3 python3-pip

When you then run

sudo pip3 install --user projectq

all dependencies (such as numpy and pybind11) should be installed automatically.

Windows:

It is easiest to install a pre-compiled version of Python, including numpy and many more useful packages. One way to do so is using, e.g., the Python3.5 installers from python.org or ANACONDA. Installing ProjectQ right away will succeed for the (slow) Python simulator (i.e., with the –without-cppsimulator flag). For a compiled version of the simulator, install the Visual C++ Build Tools and the Microsoft Windows SDK prior to doing a pip install. The built simulator will not support multi-threading due to the limited OpenMP support of msvc.

Should you want to run multi-threaded simulations, you can install a compiler which supports newer OpenMP versions, such as MinGW GCC and then manually build the C++ simulator with OpenMP enabled.

macOS:

These are the steps to install ProjectQ on a new Mac:

Install XCode:

xcode-select --install

Next, you need to install Python and pip. One way of doing so is using macports to install Python 3.5 and the corresponding version of pip. Visit macports.org and install the latest version (afterwards open a new terminal). Then, use macports to install Python 3.5 by

sudo port install python35

It might show a warning that if you intend to use python from the terminal, you should also install

sudo port install py35-readline

Install pip by

sudo port install py35-pip

Next, we can install ProjectQ with the high performance simulator written in C++. Therefore, we first need to install a suitable compiler which supports OpenMP and instrinsics. One option is to install clang 3.9 also using macports (note: gcc installed via macports does not work as the gcc compiler claims to support instrinsics, while the assembler of gcc does not support it)

sudo port install clang-3.9

ProjectQ is now installed by:

env CC=clang-mp-3.9 env CXX=clang++-mp-3.9 python3.5 -m pip install --user projectq

If you don’t want to install clang 3.9, you can try and specify your preferred compiler by changing CC and CXX in the above command (the compiler must support C++11).

Should something go wrong when compiling the C++ simulator extension in one of the above installation procedures, you can turn off this feature using the --without-cppsimulator parameter (note: this only works if one of the above installation methods has been tried and hence all requirements are now installed), i.e.,

python3.5 -m pip install --user --global-option=--without-cppsimulator projectq

While this simulator works fine for small examples, it is suggested to install the high performance simulator written in C++.

If you just want to install ProjectQ with the (slow) Python simulator and no compiler, then first try to install ProjectQ with the default compiler

python3.5 -m pip install --user projectq

which most likely will fail and then use the command above using the --without-cppsimulator parameter.

The ProjectQ syntax

Our goal is to have an intuitive syntax in order to enable an easy learning curve. Therefore, ProjectQ features a lean syntax which is close to the mathematical notation used in physics.

For example, consider applying an x-rotation by an angle theta to a qubit. In ProjectQ, this looks as follows:

Rx(theta) | qubit

whereas the corresponding notation in physics would be

\(R_x(\theta) \; |\text{qubit}\rangle\)

Moreover, the |-operator separates the classical arguments (on the left) from the quantum arguments (on the right). Next, you will see a basic quantum program using this syntax. Further examples can be found in the docs (Examples in the panel on the left) and in the ProjectQ examples folder on GitHub.

Basic quantum program

To check out the ProjectQ syntax in action and to see whether the installation worked, try to run the following basic example

from projectq import MainEngine  # import the main compiler engine
from projectq.ops import H, Measure  # import the operations we want to perform (Hadamard and measurement)

eng = MainEngine()  # create a default compiler (the back-end is a simulator)
qubit = eng.allocate_qubit()  # allocate 1 qubit

H | qubit  # apply a Hadamard gate
Measure | qubit  # measure the qubit

eng.flush()  # flush all gates (and execute measurements)
print("Measured {}".format(int(qubit)))  # output measurement result

Which creates random bits (0 or 1).