An Interpretation of Bunched Logic for Reasoning about Heap-Manipulating Quantum Programs

Abstract

We introduce heap manipulation into quantum programming languages to enable flexible quantum memory management, which in turn poses new challenges for reasoning about program correctness. To address these challenges, we develop a novel quantum interpretation of bunched logic by extending Birkhoff--von Neumann quantum logic to Hilbert spaces whose dimensions vary to accommodate the dynamic allocation and deallocation of variables on the quantum heap. Beyond the separating conjunction ($*$), we present, for the first time, a quantum interpretation of the separating implication ($-\mkern-3mu*$) to support backward reasoning. This interpretation preserves the adjunction between ($*$) and ($-\mkern-3mu*$), ensuring that both operators capture spatial properties and are precisely aligned with the semantics of quantum heap manipulations. Building on this foundation, we establish a quantum separation logic that supports local reasoning and is relatively complete.