The rational fragment of the ZX-calculus

We introduce here a new axiomatisation of the rational fragment of the ZX-calculus, a diagrammatic language for quantum mechanics. Compared to the previous axiomatisation introduced in [8], our axiomatisation does not use any metarule , but relies instead on a more natural rule, called the cyclotomic supplementarity rule, that was introduced previously in the literature. Our axiomatisation is only complete for diagrams using rational angles , and is not complete in the general case. Using results on diophantine geometry, we characterize precisely which diagram equality involving arbitrary angles are provable in our framework without any new axioms, and we show that our axiomatisation is continuous, in the sense that a diagram equality involving arbitrary angles is provable iff it is a limit of diagram equalities involving rational angles. We use this result to give a complete characterization of all Euler equations that are provable in this axiomatisation

A Generic Normal Form for ZX-Diagrams and Application to the Rational Angle Completeness

Recent completeness results on the ZX-Calculus used a third-party language, namely the ZW-Calculus. As a consequence, these proofs are elegant, but sadly non-constructive. We address this issue in the following. To do so, we first describe a generic normal form for ZX-diagrams in any fragment that contains Clifford+T quantum mechanics. We give sufficient conditions for an axiomatisation to be complete, and an algorithm to reach the normal form. Finally, we apply these results to the Clifford+T fragment and the general ZX-Calculus -- for which we already know the completeness--, but also for any fragment of rational angles: we show that the axiomatisation for Clifford+T is also complete for any fragment of dyadic angles, and that a simple new rule (called cancellation) is necessary and sufficient otherwise

The rational fragment of the ZX-calculus

We introduce here a new axiomatisation of the rational fragment of the ZX-calculus, a diagrammatic language for quantum mechanics. Compared to the previous axiomatisation introduced in [8], our axiomatisation does not use any metarule , but relies instead on a more natural rule, called the cyclotomic supplementarity rule, that was introduced previously in the literature. Our axiomatisation is only complete for diagrams using rational angles , and is not complete in the general case. Using results on diophantine geometry, we characterize precisely which diagram equality involving arbitrary angles are provable in our framework without any new axioms, and we show that our axiomatisation is continuous, in the sense that a diagram equality involving arbitrary angles is provable iff it is a limit of diagram equalities involving rational angles. We use this result to give a complete characterization of all Euler equations that are provable in this axiomatisation

A Generic Normal Form for ZX-Diagrams and Application to the Rational Angle Completeness

International audienceRecent completeness results on the ZX-Calculus used a third-party language, namely the ZW-Calculus. As a consequence, these proofs are elegant, but sadly non-constructive. We address this issue in the following. To do so, we first describe a generic normal form for ZX-diagrams in any fragment that contains Clifford+T quantum mechanics. We give sufficient conditions for an axiomatisation to be complete, and an algorithm to reach the normal form. Finally, we apply these results to the Clifford+T fragment and the general ZX-Calculus – for which we already know the completeness–, but also for any fragment of rational angles: we show that the axiomatisation for Clifford+T is also complete for any fragment of dyadic angles, and that a simple new rule (called cancellation) is necessary and sufficient otherwise

A Complete Axiomatisation of the ZX-Calculus for Clifford+T Quantum Mechanics

We introduce the first complete and approximatively universal diagrammatic language for quantum mechanics. We make the ZX-Calculus, a diagrammatic language introduced by Coecke and Duncan, complete for the so-called Clifford+T quantum mechanics by adding four new axioms to the language. The completeness of the ZX-Calculus for Clifford+T quantum mechanics was one of the main open questions in categorical quantum mechanics. We prove the completeness of the Clifford+T fragment of the ZX-Calculus using the recently studied ZW-Calculus, a calculus dealing with integer matrices. We also prove that the Clifford+T fragment of the ZX-Calculus represents exactly all the matrices over some finite dimensional extension of the ring of dyadic rationals

ZX-Calculus: Cyclotomic Supplementarity and Incompleteness for Clifford+T quantum mechanics

The ZX-Calculus is a powerful graphical language for quantum mechanics and quantum information processing. The completeness of the language -- i.e. the ability to derive any true equation -- is a crucial question. In the quest of a complete ZX-calculus, supplementarity has been recently proved to be necessary for quantum diagram reasoning (MFCS 2016). Roughly speaking, supplementarity consists in merging two subdiagrams when they are parameterized by antipodal angles. We introduce a generalised supplementarity -- called cyclotomic supplementarity -- which consists in merging n subdiagrams at once, when the n angles divide the circle into equal parts. We show that when n is an odd prime number, the cyclotomic supplementarity cannot be derived, leading to a countable family of new axioms for diagrammatic quantum reasoning.We exhibit another new simple axiom that cannot be derived from the existing rules of the ZX-Calculus, implying in particular the incompleteness of the language for the so-called Clifford+T quantum mechanics. We end up with a new axiomatisation of an extended ZX-Calculus, including an axiom schema for the cyclotomic supplementarity.Comment: Mathematical Foundations of Computer Science, Aug 2017, Aalborg, Denmar

Completeness of the ZX-Calculus

The ZX-Calculus is a graphical language for diagrammatic reasoning in quantum mechanics and quantum information theory. It comes equipped with an equational presentation. We focus here on a very important property of the language: completeness, which roughly ensures the equational theory captures all of quantum mechanics. We first improve on the known-to-be-complete presentation for the so-called Clifford fragment of the language - a restriction that is not universal - by adding some axioms. Thanks to a system of back-and-forth translation between the ZX-Calculus and a third-party complete graphical language, we prove that the provided axiomatisation is complete for the first approximately universal fragment of the language, namely Clifford+T. We then prove that the expressive power of this presentation, though aimed at achieving completeness for the aforementioned restriction, extends beyond Clifford+T, to a class of diagrams that we call linear with Clifford+T constants. We use another version of the third-party language - and an adapted system of back-and-forth translation - to complete the language for the ZX-Calculus as a whole, that is, with no restriction. We briefly discuss the added axioms, and finally, we provide a complete axiomatisation for an altered version of the language which involves an additional generator, making the presentation simpler

Supplementarity is Necessary for Quantum Diagram Reasoning

The ZX-calculus is a powerful diagrammatic language for quantum mechanics and quantum information processing. We prove that its \pi/4-fragment is not complete, in other words the ZX-calculus is not complete for the so called "Clifford+T quantum mechanics". The completeness of this fragment was one of the main open problems in categorical quantum mechanics, a programme initiated by Abramsky and Coecke. The ZX-calculus was known to be incomplete for quantum mechanics. On the other hand, its \pi/2-fragment is known to be complete, i.e. the ZX-calculus is complete for the so called "stabilizer quantum mechanics". Deciding whether its \pi/4-fragment is complete is a crucial step in the development of the ZX-calculus since this fragment is approximately universal for quantum mechanics, contrary to the \pi/2-fragment. To establish our incompleteness result, we consider a fairly simple property of quantum states called supplementarity. We show that supplementarity can be derived in the ZX-calculus if and only if the angles involved in this equation are multiples of \pi/2. In particular, the impossibility to derive supplementarity for \pi/4 implies the incompleteness of the ZX-calculus for Clifford+T quantum mechanics. As a consequence, we propose to add the supplementarity to the set of rules of the ZX-calculus. We also show that if a ZX-diagram involves antiphase twins, they can be merged when the ZX-calculus is augmented with the supplementarity rule. Merging antiphase twins makes diagrammatic reasoning much easier and provides a purely graphical meaning to the supplementarity rule.Comment: Generalised proof and graphical interpretation. 16 pages, submitte

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

A Diagrammatic Axiomatisation for Qubit Entanglement

Diagrammatic techniques for reasoning about monoidal categories provide an intuitive understanding of the symmetries and connections of interacting computational processes. In the context of categorical quantum mechanics, Coecke and Kissinger suggested that two 3-qubit states, GHZ and W, may be used as the building blocks of a new graphical calculus, aimed at a diagrammatic classification of multipartite qubit entanglement that would highlight the communicational properties of quantum states, and their potential uses in cryptographic schemes. In this paper, we present a full graphical axiomatisation of the relations between GHZ and W: the ZW calculus. This refines a version of the preexisting ZX calculus, while keeping its most desirable characteristics: undirectedness, a large degree of symmetry, and an algebraic underpinning. We prove that the ZW calculus is complete for the category of free abelian groups on a power of two generators - "qubits with integer coefficients" - and provide an explicit normalisation procedure.Comment: 12 page