A comprehensive study of quantum arithmetic circuits

In recent decades, the field of quantum computing has experienced remarkable progress. This progress is marked by the superior performance of many quantum algorithms compared with their classical counterparts, with Shor's algorithm serving as a prominent illustration. Quantum arithmetic circuits, which are the fundamental building blocks in numerous quantum algorithms, have attracted much attention. Despite extensive exploration of various designs in the existing literature, researchers remain keen to develop novel designs and improve existing ones. In this review article, we aim to provide a systematically organized and easily comprehensible overview of the current state of the art in quantum arithmetic circuits. Specifically, this study covers fundamental operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and modular exponentiation. We delve into the detailed quantum implementations of these prominent designs and evaluate their efficiency considering various objectives. We also discuss potential applications of the presented arithmetic circuits and suggest future research directions.This article is part of the theme issue 'Emerging technologies for future secure computing platforms'.