Simulating quantum circuits with GNU Octave and Python

Quantum algorithms are known to be more powerful than their classical counterparts, in the sense that they offer huge speed-ups as opposed to their classical counterparts. Physical realization of quantum algorithms results in the building of quantum circuits, which are in turn used to build a quantum computer. Unfortunately, a full-scale quantum computer is yet to be realized, hence why quantum algorithms are currently modelled on classical computers. In this work, we report the simulation of quantum circuits using GNU Octave and Python Programming languages. Additionally, performance of these languages on simulating such circuits is compared. Quantum circuits simulated are: the circuit for preparing a two-qubit entanglement (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) state), the one for preparing a three-qubit entanglement (Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger (GHZ) state), swap circuit and Quantum Fourier Transform (QFT).