Quantum Circuit Mutants: Empirical Analysis and Recommendations

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Usandizaga, Eñaut Mendiluze, Yue, Tao, Arcaini, Paolo, Ali, Shaukat
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2023
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author Usandizaga, Eñaut Mendiluze
Yue, Tao
Arcaini, Paolo
Ali, Shaukat
author_facet Usandizaga, Eñaut Mendiluze
Yue, Tao
Arcaini, Paolo
Ali, Shaukat
contents As a new research area, quantum software testing lacks systematic testing benchmarks to assess testing techniques' effectiveness. Recently, some open-source benchmarks and mutation analysis tools have emerged. However, there is insufficient evidence on how various quantum circuit characteristics (e.g., circuit depth, number of quantum gates), algorithms (e.g., Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm), and mutation characteristics (e.g., mutation operators) affect the detection of mutants in quantum circuits. Studying such relations is important to systematically design faulty benchmarks with varied attributes (e.g., the difficulty in detecting a seeded fault) to facilitate assessing the cost-effectiveness of quantum software testing techniques efficiently. To this end, we present a large-scale empirical evaluation with more than 700K faulty benchmarks (quantum circuits) generated by mutating 382 real-world quantum circuits. Based on the results, we provide valuable insights for researchers to define systematic quantum mutation analysis techniques. We also provide a tool to recommend mutants to users based on chosen characteristics (e.g., a quantum algorithm type) and the required difficulty of detecting mutants. Finally, we also provide faulty benchmarks that can already be used to assess the cost-effectiveness of quantum software testing techniques.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2311_16913
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantum Circuit Mutants: Empirical Analysis and Recommendations
Usandizaga, Eñaut Mendiluze
Yue, Tao
Arcaini, Paolo
Ali, Shaukat
Software Engineering
As a new research area, quantum software testing lacks systematic testing benchmarks to assess testing techniques' effectiveness. Recently, some open-source benchmarks and mutation analysis tools have emerged. However, there is insufficient evidence on how various quantum circuit characteristics (e.g., circuit depth, number of quantum gates), algorithms (e.g., Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm), and mutation characteristics (e.g., mutation operators) affect the detection of mutants in quantum circuits. Studying such relations is important to systematically design faulty benchmarks with varied attributes (e.g., the difficulty in detecting a seeded fault) to facilitate assessing the cost-effectiveness of quantum software testing techniques efficiently. To this end, we present a large-scale empirical evaluation with more than 700K faulty benchmarks (quantum circuits) generated by mutating 382 real-world quantum circuits. Based on the results, we provide valuable insights for researchers to define systematic quantum mutation analysis techniques. We also provide a tool to recommend mutants to users based on chosen characteristics (e.g., a quantum algorithm type) and the required difficulty of detecting mutants. Finally, we also provide faulty benchmarks that can already be used to assess the cost-effectiveness of quantum software testing techniques.
title Quantum Circuit Mutants: Empirical Analysis and Recommendations
topic Software Engineering
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.16913