3,518 research outputs found
Completeness of Graphical Languages for Mixed States Quantum Mechanics
There exist several graphical languages for quantum information processing, like quantum circuits, ZX-Calculus, ZW-Calculus, etc. Each of these languages forms a dagger-symmetric monoidal category (dagger-SMC) and comes with an interpretation functor to the dagger-SMC of (finite dimension) Hilbert spaces. In the recent years, one of the main achievements of the categorical approach to quantum mechanics has been to provide several equational theories for most of these graphical languages, making them complete for various fragments of pure quantum mechanics.
We address the question of the extension of these languages beyond pure quantum mechanics, in order to reason on mixed states and general quantum operations, i.e. completely positive maps. Intuitively, such an extension relies on the axiomatisation of a discard map which allows one to get rid of a quantum system, operation which is not allowed in pure quantum mechanics.
We introduce a new construction, the discard construction, which transforms any dagger-symmetric monoidal category into a symmetric monoidal category equipped with a discard map. Roughly speaking this construction consists in making any isometry causal.
Using this construction we provide an extension for several graphical languages that we prove to be complete for general quantum operations. However this construction fails for some fringe cases like the Clifford+T quantum mechanics, as the category does not have enough isometries
A complete graphical calculus for Spekkens' toy bit theory
While quantum theory cannot be described by a local hidden variable model, it
is nevertheless possible to construct such models that exhibit features
commonly associated with quantum mechanics. These models are also used to
explore the question of {\psi}-ontic versus {\psi}-epistemic theories for
quantum mechanics. Spekkens' toy theory is one such model. It arises from
classical probabilistic mechanics via a limit on the knowledge an observer may
have about the state of a system. The toy theory for the simplest possible
underlying system closely resembles stabilizer quantum mechanics, a fragment of
quantum theory which is efficiently classically simulable but also non-local.
Further analysis of the similarities and differences between those two theories
can thus yield new insights into what distinguishes quantum theory from
classical theories, and {\psi}-ontic from {\psi}-epistemic theories.
In this paper, we develop a graphical language for Spekkens' toy theory.
Graphical languages offer intuitive and rigorous formalisms for the analysis of
quantum mechanics and similar theories. To compare quantum mechanics and a toy
model, it is useful to have similar formalisms for both. We show that our
language fully describes Spekkens' toy theory and in particular, that it is
complete: meaning any equality that can be derived using other formalisms can
also be derived entirely graphically. Our language is inspired by a similar
graphical language for quantum mechanics called the ZX-calculus. Thus Spekkens'
toy bit theory and stabilizer quantum mechanics can be analysed and compared
using analogous graphical formalisms.Comment: Major revisions for v2. 22+7 page
Towards a Minimal Stabilizer ZX-calculus
The stabilizer ZX-calculus is a rigorous graphical language for reasoning
about quantum mechanics. The language is sound and complete: one can transform
a stabilizer ZX-diagram into another one using the graphical rewrite rules if
and only if these two diagrams represent the same quantum evolution or quantum
state. We previously showed that the stabilizer ZX-calculus can be simplified
by reducing the number of rewrite rules, without losing the property of
completeness [Backens, Perdrix & Wang, EPTCS 236:1--20, 2017]. Here, we show
that most of the remaining rules of the language are indeed necessary. We do
however leave as an open question the necessity of two rules. These include,
surprisingly, the bialgebra rule, which is an axiomatisation of
complementarity, the cornerstone of the ZX-calculus. Furthermore, we show that
a weaker ambient category -- a braided autonomous category instead of the usual
compact closed category -- is sufficient to recover the meta rule 'only
connectivity matters', even without assuming any symmetries of the generators.Comment: 29 pages, minor updates for v
Graphical Methods in Device-Independent Quantum Cryptography
We introduce a framework for graphical security proofs in device-independent
quantum cryptography using the methods of categorical quantum mechanics. We are
optimistic that this approach will make some of the highly complex proofs in
quantum cryptography more accessible, facilitate the discovery of new proofs,
and enable automated proof verification. As an example of our framework, we
reprove a previous result from device-independent quantum cryptography: any
linear randomness expansion protocol can be converted into an unbounded
randomness expansion protocol. We give a graphical proof of this result, and
implement part of it in the Globular proof assistant.Comment: Publishable version. Diagrams have been polished, minor revisions to
the text, and an appendix added with supplementary proof
POVMs and Naimark's theorem without sums
We provide a definition of POVM in terms of abstract tensor structure only.
It is justified in two distinct manners. i. At this abstract level we are still
able to prove Naimark's theorem, hence establishing a bijective correspondence
between abstract POVMs and abstract projective measurements on an extended
system, and this proof is moreover purely graphical. ii. Our definition
coincides with the usual one for the particular case of the Hilbert space
tensor product. We also point to a very useful normal form result for the
classical object structure introduced in quant-ph/0608035
Causal categories: relativistically interacting processes
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
Environment and classical channels in categorical quantum mechanics
We present a both simple and comprehensive graphical calculus for quantum
computing. In particular, we axiomatize the notion of an environment, which
together with the earlier introduced axiomatic notion of classical structure
enables us to define classical channels, quantum measurements and classical
control. If we moreover adjoin the earlier introduced axiomatic notion of
complementarity, we obtain sufficient structural power for constructive
representation and correctness derivation of typical quantum informatic
protocols.Comment: 26 pages, many pics; this third version has substantially more
explanations than previous ones; Journal reference is of short 14 page
version; Proceedings of the 19th EACSL Annual Conference on Computer Science
Logic (CSL), Lecture Notes in Computer Science 6247, Springer-Verlag (2010
Depicting qudit quantum mechanics and mutually unbiased qudit theories
We generalize the ZX calculus to quantum systems of dimension higher than
two. The resulting calculus is sound and universal for quantum mechanics. We
define the notion of a mutually unbiased qudit theory and study two particular
instances of these theories in detail: qudit stabilizer quantum mechanics and
Spekkens-Schreiber toy theory for dits. The calculus allows us to analyze the
structure of qudit stabilizer quantum mechanics and provides a geometrical
picture of qudit stabilizer theory using D-toruses, which generalizes the Bloch
sphere picture for qubit stabilizer quantum mechanics. We also use our
framework to describe generalizations of Spekkens toy theory to higher
dimensional systems. This gives a novel proof that qudit stabilizer quantum
mechanics and Spekkens-Schreiber toy theory for dits are operationally
equivalent in three dimensions. The qudit pictorial calculus is a useful tool
to study quantum foundations, understand the relationship between qubit and
qudit quantum mechanics, and provide a novel, high level description of quantum
information protocols.Comment: In Proceedings QPL 2014, arXiv:1412.810
Computation in Finitary Stochastic and Quantum Processes
We introduce stochastic and quantum finite-state transducers as
computation-theoretic models of classical stochastic and quantum finitary
processes. Formal process languages, representing the distribution over a
process's behaviors, are recognized and generated by suitable specializations.
We characterize and compare deterministic and nondeterministic versions,
summarizing their relative computational power in a hierarchy of finitary
process languages. Quantum finite-state transducers and generators are a first
step toward a computation-theoretic analysis of individual, repeatedly measured
quantum dynamical systems. They are explored via several physical systems,
including an iterated beam splitter, an atom in a magnetic field, and atoms in
an ion trap--a special case of which implements the Deutsch quantum algorithm.
We show that these systems' behaviors, and so their information processing
capacity, depends sensitively on the measurement protocol.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figures, 1 table; http://cse.ucdavis.edu/~cmg; numerous
corrections and update
SZX-Calculus: Scalable Graphical Quantum Reasoning
We introduce the Scalable ZX-calculus (SZX-calculus for short), a formal and compact graphical language for the design and verification of quantum computations. The SZX-calculus is an extension of the ZX-calculus, a powerful framework that captures graphically the fundamental properties of quantum mechanics through its complete set of rewrite rules. The ZX-calculus is, however, a low level language, with each wire representing a single qubit. This limits its ability to handle large and elaborate quantum evolutions. We extend the ZX-calculus to registers of qubits and allow compact representation of sub-diagrams via binary matrices. We show soundness and completeness of the SZX-calculus and provide two examples of applications, for graph states and error correcting codes
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