Grupo Alarcos · Journal article · 2026
QuMuS: A scalable tool for quantum mutant testing on NISQ hardware
Jaime Alvarado Valiente, Javier Romero Álvarez, Enrique Moguel, Garcia-Alonso, Jose, Macario Polo Usaola, Ignacio García Rodríguez de Guzmán, Juan Manuel Murillo Rodríguez
Quantum Mutation Testing (QMT) is a promising approach for assessing the correctness and robustness of quantum programs, but its adoption on real quantum hardware is severely constrained by the cost and execution time required to run large mutant sets on cloud-based Quantum Processing Units. This paper presents QuMuS, a scalable software tool that enables practical QMT on NISQ hardware by combining automated quantum circuit mutant generation with a multi-programmed scheduling strategy. QuMuS efficiently packs large collections of mutants into composite circuits for execution on real quantum devices and reconstructs individual results through an unscheduling process, significantly reducing operational overhead. The tool provides an end-to-end workflow supporting circuit definition, mutant generation, scheduling, execution, and result analysis, while abstracting provider-specific details and integrating with IBM Quantum and Amazon Braket. Experimental validation on real quantum processors using large mutant sets demonstrates execution time and cost reductions exceeding 90% compared to isolated executions, while preserving acceptable statistical fidelity under realistic noise conditions.