ASM Specification and Refinement of a Quantum Algorithm

In this paper we use the Abstract State Machine (ASM) method for high-level system design and analysis created by Egon Borger to formally specify Grover’s quantum database search algorithm, stepwise refining it from its highest abstraction level down to its implementation as a quantum circuit. Our aim is to raise the question of whether the ASM method in general and quantum ASMs in particular can improve the current practices of quantum system engineering; providing accurate high-level modelling and linking the descriptions at the successive stages of quantum systems development through a chain of rigorous and coherent system models at stepwise refined levels of abstraction.