How to model almost any quantum experiement: a tutorial on the SLH formalism

Large scale communication and computing technologies are integral to modern life. The ubiquity of these technologies is due to the emergence of large scale integrated electronic circuits, which in turn are enabled by mature and powerful tools for circuit design automation and analysis (e.g., SPICE, gEDA). For quantum technologies there is no agreed upon counterpart to these tools. An important next step, to realizing large scale quantum technologies, will require the development of sophisticated modeling and analysis tools for quantum hardware that parralell classical simulation and design tools – e.g., these tools should incorporate useful abstractions, such as modularity, networks and hierarchy, and enable coordination between high-level software and algorithmic needs and low-level hardware design.

In this tutorial style talk I will summarize progress in developing such a modeling framework, known as the SLH framework. Importantly, it incorporates many of the useful abstractions listed above, and thus has the potential to form the foundation for developing tools that enable design and analysis of large scale assemblies of quantum coherent systems.

This talk is based on the reivew https://arxiv.org/abs/1611.00375 or Advances in Physics: X, Vol. 2, 784 (2017).