Simulators for photonic quantum information processing (PQIP) experiments are essentially different with currently available quantum-circuit simulators. In PQIP experiments, photons are usually encoded by multiple degrees of freedom, some of which are multi-level or even infinite-level. Moreover, the evolution of indistinguishable photons cannot be described elegantly by the model used in quantum-circuit simulators. A simulator focusing on PQIP experiments is urgently needed, as it plays an important role in PQIP experiments designing and verification. We developed PhotoniQLAB, an object-oriented framework designed for simulating PQIP experiments, which provides a virtual-lab user experience. The core simulation unit is a computer algebraic system based on the second quantization method. PhotoniQLAB only requires users to enter the structure information of a target PQIP experiment to conduct a simulation, as it can understand the topological structure by itself. The mathematical foundation and technical details of PhotoniQLAB are discussed in the paper. The performance of PhotoniQLAB, which is analyzed and used to simulate several experimental schemes in this paper, has been shown to be efficient enough for near-term PQIP experiments. PhotoniQLAB shows its flexibility and universality, through simulating more than 60 existing PQIP experiments in published papers. We believe that PhotoniQLAB will become a fundamental PQIP software infrastructure facilitating the analyses and designs of PQIP experiments.

用于光子量子信息处理（PQIP）实验的模拟器与当前可用的量子电路模拟器本质上有所不同。在PQIP实验中，光子通常由多个自由度编码，其中一些自由度是多级甚至无限级。此外，无法用量子电路仿真器中的模型优雅地描述无法区分的光子的演化。迫切需要一个针对PQIP实验的模拟器，因为它在PQIP实验的设计和验证中起着重要的作用。我们开发了PhotoniQLAB，这是一种用于模拟PQIP实验的面向对象的框架，可提供虚拟实验室用户体验。核心模拟单元是基于第二量化方法的计算机代数系统。PhotoniQLAB只需用户输入目标PQIP实验的结构信息即可进行仿真，因为它可以自己理解拓扑结构。本文讨论了PhotoniQLAB的数学基础和技术细节。经证明，PhotoniQLAB的性能已被分析并用于模拟几种实验方案，已被证明足以用于近期的PQIP实验。通过在已发表的论文中模拟60多个现有的PQIP实验，PhotoniQLAB展示了其灵活性和通用性。我们相信，PhotoniQLAB将成为促进PQIP实验分析和设计的基本PQIP软件基础架构。本文讨论了PhotoniQLAB的数学基础和技术细节。经证明，PhotoniQLAB的性能已被分析并用于模拟几种实验方案，已被证明足以用于近期的PQIP实验。通过在已发表的论文中模拟60多个现有的PQIP实验，PhotoniQLAB展示了其灵活性和通用性。我们相信，PhotoniQLAB将成为促进PQIP实验分析和设计的基本PQIP软件基础架构。本文讨论了PhotoniQLAB的数学基础和技术细节。经证明，PhotoniQLAB的性能已被分析并用于模拟几种实验方案，已被证明足以用于近期的PQIP实验。通过在已发表的论文中模拟60多个现有的PQIP实验，PhotoniQLAB展示了其灵活性和通用性。我们相信，PhotoniQLAB将成为促进PQIP实验分析和设计的基本PQIP软件基础架构。通过在已发表的论文中模拟60多个现有的PQIP实验，PhotoniQLAB展示了其灵活性和通用性。我们相信，PhotoniQLAB将成为促进PQIP实验分析和设计的基本PQIP软件基础架构。通过在已发表的论文中模拟60多个现有的PQIP实验，PhotoniQLAB展示了其灵活性和通用性。我们相信，PhotoniQLAB将成为促进PQIP实验分析和设计的基本PQIP软件基础架构。