A Taxonomic View of the Fundamental Concepts of Quantum Computing–A Software Engineering Perspective

Abstract

Quantum computing is based on the principles of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, entanglement, measurement, and decoherence. The basic units of computation are qubits, which are abstract objects with a mathematical expression to implement the quantum mechanics principles. Alongside quantum hardware, software is a principal element for conducting quantum computing. The software consists of logic gates and quantum circuits that implement algorithms for the execution of quantum programs. Due to those characteristics, quantum computing is a paradigm that non-physics experts cannot understand. Under this new scheme for developing software, it is important to integrate a conceptual framework of the fundamentals on which quantum computing is based. In this paper, we present a kind of taxonomical view of the fundamental concepts of quantum computing and the derived concepts that integrate the emerging discipline of quantum software engineering. We performed a quasi-systematic mapping for conducting the systematic review because the objective of the review only intends to detect the fundamental concepts of quantum computing and quantum software. The results can help computer science students and professors as a starting point to address the study of this discipline.