While recent progress in quantum hardware open the door for significant speedup in certain key areas (cryptography, biology, chemistry, optimization, machine learning, etc), quantum algorithms are still hard to implement right, and the validation of such quantum programs is a challenge. Moreover, importing the testing and debugging practices at use in classical programming is extremely difficult in the quantum case, due to the destructive aspect of quantum measurement. As an alternative strategy, formal methods are prone to play a decisive role in the emerging field of quantum software. Recent works initiate solutions for problems occurring at every stage of the development process: high-level program design, implementation, compilation, etc. We review the induced challenges for an efficient use of formal methods in quantum computing and the current most promising research directions.
To appear as Chapter “Formal methods for Quantum Algorithms” in “Handbook of Formal Analysis and Verification in Cryptography”, CRC.