6,159 research outputs found

    Causal categories: relativistically interacting processes

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    A symmetric monoidal category naturally arises as the mathematical structure that organizes physical systems, processes, and composition thereof, both sequentially and in parallel. This structure admits a purely graphical calculus. This paper is concerned with the encoding of a fixed causal structure within a symmetric monoidal category: causal dependencies will correspond to topological connectedness in the graphical language. We show that correlations, either classical or quantum, force terminality of the tensor unit. We also show that well-definedness of the concept of a global state forces the monoidal product to be only partially defined, which in turn results in a relativistic covariance theorem. Except for these assumptions, at no stage do we assume anything more than purely compositional symmetric-monoidal categorical structure. We cast these two structural results in terms of a mathematical entity, which we call a `causal category'. We provide methods of constructing causal categories, and we study the consequences of these methods for the general framework of categorical quantum mechanics.Comment: 43 pages, lots of figure

    Physics, Topology, Logic and Computation: A Rosetta Stone

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    In physics, Feynman diagrams are used to reason about quantum processes. In the 1980s, it became clear that underlying these diagrams is a powerful analogy between quantum physics and topology: namely, a linear operator behaves very much like a "cobordism". Similar diagrams can be used to reason about logic, where they represent proofs, and computation, where they represent programs. With the rise of interest in quantum cryptography and quantum computation, it became clear that there is extensive network of analogies between physics, topology, logic and computation. In this expository paper, we make some of these analogies precise using the concept of "closed symmetric monoidal category". We assume no prior knowledge of category theory, proof theory or computer science.Comment: 73 pages, 8 encapsulated postscript figure

    A first-order logic for string diagrams

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    Equational reasoning with string diagrams provides an intuitive means of proving equations between morphisms in a symmetric monoidal category. This can be extended to proofs of infinite families of equations using a simple graphical syntax called !-box notation. While this does greatly increase the proving power of string diagrams, previous attempts to go beyond equational reasoning have been largely ad hoc, owing to the lack of a suitable logical framework for diagrammatic proofs involving !-boxes. In this paper, we extend equational reasoning with !-boxes to a fully-fledged first order logic called with conjunction, implication, and universal quantification over !-boxes. This logic, called !L, is then rich enough to properly formalise an induction principle for !-boxes. We then build a standard model for !L and give an example proof of a theorem for non-commutative bialgebras using !L, which is unobtainable by equational reasoning alone.Comment: 15 pages + appendi

    A Prehistory of n-Categorical Physics

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    This paper traces the growing role of categories and n-categories in physics, starting with groups and their role in relativity, and leading up to more sophisticated concepts which manifest themselves in Feynman diagrams, spin networks, string theory, loop quantum gravity, and topological quantum field theory. Our chronology ends around 2000, with just a taste of later developments such as open-closed topological string theory, the categorification of quantum groups, Khovanov homology, and Lurie's work on the classification of topological quantum field theories.Comment: 129 pages, 8 eps figure
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