{"ID":2876186,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00744","arxiv_id":"2509.00744","title":"Implementing Pearl's $\\mathcal{DO}$-Calculus on Quantum Circuits: A Simpson-Type Case Study on NISQ Hardware","abstract":"Distinguishing correlation from causation is a central challenge in machine intelligence, and Pearl's $\\mathcal{DO}$-calculus provides a rigorous symbolic framework for reasoning about interventions. A complementary question is whether such intervention logic can be given \\emph{executable semantics} on physical quantum devices. Our approach maps causal networks onto quantum circuits, where nodes are encoded in qubit registers, probabilistic links are implemented by controlled-rotation gates, and interventions are realized by a structural remodeling of the circuit -- a physical analogue of Pearl's ``graph surgery'' that we term \\emph{circuit surgery}. We show that, for a family of 3-node confounded treatment models (including a Simpson-type reversal), the post-surgery circuits reproduce exactly the interventional distributions prescribed by the corresponding classical $\\mathcal{DO}$-calculus. We then demonstrate a proof-of-principle experimental realization on an IonQ Aria trapped-ion processor and a 10-qubit synthetic healthcare model, observing close agreement between hardware estimates and classical baselines under realistic noise. We do not claim quantum speedup; instead, our contribution is to establish a concrete pathway by which causal graphs and Pearl-style interventions can be represented, executed, and empirically tested within the formalism of quantum circuits.","short_abstract":"Distinguishing correlation from causation is a central challenge in machine intelligence, and Pearl's $\\mathcal{DO}$-calculus provides a rigorous symbolic framework for reasoning about interventions. A complementary question is whether such intervention logic can be given \\emph{executable semantics} on physical quantum...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00744","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2509.00744v2","authors":"[\"Pilsung Kang\"]","published":"2025-08-31T08:33:01Z","proceeding":"quant-ph","tasks":"[\"quant-ph\",\"cs.AI\",\"cs.LG\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}