arXiv subjects

Eric Oliver Paquette

Publications and source records attributed to Eric Oliver Paquette.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2009

Categories for the practising physicist

In this chapter we survey some particular topics in category theory in a somewhat unconventional manner. Our main focus will be on monoidal categories, mostly symmetric ones, for which we propose a physical interpretation. These are particularly relevant for quantum foundations and for quantum informatics. Special attention is given to the category which has finite dimensional Hilbert spaces as objects, linear maps as morphisms, and the tensor product as its monoidal structure (FdHilb). We also provide a detailed discussion of the category which has sets as objects, relations as morphisms, and the cartesian product as its monoidal structure (Rel), and thirdly, categories with manifolds as objects and cobordisms between these as morphisms (2Cob). While sets, Hilbert spaces and manifolds do not share any non-trivial common structure, these three categories are in fact structurally very similar. Shared features are diagrammatic calculus, compact closed structure and particular kinds of internal comonoids which play an important role in each of them. The categories FdHilb and Rel moreover admit a categorical matrix calculus. Together these features guide us towards topological quantum field theories. We also discuss posetal categories, how group representations are in fact categorical constructs, and what strictification and coherence of monoidal categories is all about. In our attempt to complement the existing literature we omitted some very basic topics. For these we refer the reader to other available sources.

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arXiv2009

Classical and quantum structuralism

In recent work, symmetric dagger-monoidal (SDM) categories have emerged as a convenient categorical formalization of quantum mechanics. The objects represent physical systems, the morphisms physical operations, whereas the tensors describe composite systems. Classical data turn out to correspond to Frobenius algebras with some additional properties. They express the distinguishing capabilities of classical data: in contrast with quantum data, classical data can be copied and deleted. The algebraic approach thus shifts the paradigm of "quantization" of a classical theory to "classicization" of a quantum theory. Remarkably, the simple SDM framework suffices not only for this conceptual shift, but even allows us to distinguish the deterministic classical operations (i.e. functions) from the nondeterministic classical operations (i.e. relations), and the probabilistic classical operations (stochastic maps). Moreover, a combination of some basic categorical constructions (due to Kleisli, resp. Grothendieck) with the categorical presentations of quantum states, provides a resource sensitive account of various quantum-classical interactions: of classical control of quantum data, of classical data arising from quantum measurements, as well as of the classical data processing in-between controls and measurements. A salient feature here is the graphical calculus for categorical quantum mechanics, which allows a purely diagrammatic representation of classical-quantum interaction.

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arXiv2008

Bases in diagrammatic quantum protocols

This paper contains two new results: 1. We amend the notion of abstract basis in a dagger symmetric monoidal category, as well as its corresponding graphical representation, in order to accommodate non-self-dual dagger compact structures; this is crucial for obtaining a `planar' diagrammatical representation of the induced dagger compact structure as well as for representing many complementary bases within one diagrammatic calculus. 2. We (crucially) rely on these basis structures in a purely diagrammatic derivation of the `quantum state transfer protocol'; this derivation provides interesting insights in the distinct structural resources required for state-transfer and teleportation as models of quantum computing.

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arXiv2007

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.

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