Causal Boxes: Quantum Information-Processing Systems Closed under Composition

Complex information-processing systems, for example quantum circuits, cryptographic protocols, or multi-player games, are naturally described as networks composed of more basic information-processing systems. A modular analysis of such systems requires a mathematical model of systems that is closed under composition, i.e., a network of these objects is again an object of the same type. We propose such a model and call the corresponding systems causal boxes. Causal boxes capture superpositions of causal structures, e.g., messages sent by a causal box A can be in a superposition of different orders or in a superposition of being sent to box B and box C. Furthermore, causal boxes can model systems whose behavior depends on time. By instantiating the Abstract Cryptography framework with causal boxes, we obtain the first composable security framework that can handle arbitrary quantum protocols and relativistic protocols.Comment: 44+24 pages, 16 figures. v3: minor edits based on referee comments, matches published version up to layout. v2: definition of causality weakened, new reference

Unextendible Product Bases, Uncompletable Product Bases and Bound Entanglement

We report new results and generalizations of our work on unextendible product bases (UPB), uncompletable product bases and bound entanglement. We present a new construction for bound entangled states based on product bases which are only completable in a locally extended Hilbert space. We introduce a very useful representation of a product basis, an orthogonality graph. Using this representation we give a complete characterization of unextendible product bases for two qutrits. We present several generalizations of UPBs to arbitrary high dimensions and multipartite systems. We present a sufficient condition for sets of orthogonal product states to be distinguishable by separable superoperators. We prove that bound entangled states cannot help increase the distillable entanglement of a state beyond its regularized entanglement of formation assisted by bound entanglement.Comment: 24 pages RevTex, 15 figures; appendix removed, several small corrections, to appear in Comm. Math. Phy

Clock and Category; IS QUANTUM GRAVITY ALGEBRAIC

We investigate the possibility that the quantum theory of gravity could be constructed discretely using algebraic methods. The algebraic tools are similar to ones used in constructing topological quantum field theories.The algebraic tools are related to ideas about the reinterpretation of quantum mechanics in a general relativistic context.Comment: To appear in special issue of JMP. Latex documen

The Hilbert Zonotope and a Polynomial Time Algorithm for Universal Grobner Bases

We provide a polynomial time algorithm for computing the universal Gr\"obner basis of any polynomial ideal having a finite set of common zeros in fixed number of variables. One ingredient of our algorithm is an effective construction of the state polyhedron of any member of the Hilbert scheme Hilb^d_n of n-long d-variate ideals, enabled by introducing the Hilbert zonotope H^d_n and showing that it simultaneously refines all state polyhedra of ideals on Hilb^d_n

The Frobenius formalism in Galois quantum systems

Quantum systems in which the position and momentum take values in the ring ${\cal Z}_d$ and which are described with $d$-dimensional Hilbert space, are considered. When $d$ is the power of a prime, the position and momentum take values in the Galois field $GF(p^ \ell)$, the position-momentum phase space is a finite geometry and the corresponding `Galois quantum systems' have stronger properties. The study of these systems uses ideas from the subject of field extension in the context of quantum mechanics. The Frobenius automorphism in Galois fields leads to Frobenius subspaces and Frobenius transformations in Galois quantum systems. Links between the Frobenius formalism and Riemann surfaces, are discussed