A Framework for Managing the Models of Engineered Quantum Systems

Abstract

Quantum technologies are maturing into systems that classical engineering must build, verify and maintain. The model-driven community has begun to respond with quantum-aware pipelines and languages, and the domain models these produce must be synchronised with the heterogeneous models created and owned by other communities. We argue that existing synchronisation approaches are insufficient for engineered quantum systems. A quantum system description captures superposition and entanglement, which a model transformation could remove undetected, while every structural check passes. To address this, we present the Quantum Systems Model Management (QSysMM) Framework, which guides the construction and synchronisation of the models of a quantum system into a digital single source of truth. The framework features four concerns: ontological, abstraction, composition and exposure, each given the treatment that engineered quantum systems require. Within this framework, we propose a Quantum Systems Modelling Language (QSysML) on the SysML v2 technology stack, and we close with a proposal that matures this synchronisation core into full model management for quantum systems.