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.
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.
Abstraction is an important driving force in theoretical physics. New insights often accompany the creation of physical frameworks which are both comprehensive and parsimonious. In particular, the analysis of alternative sets of theories which exhibit similar structural features as quantum theory has yielded important new results and physical understanding. An important task is to undertake a thorough analysis and classification of quantum-like theories. In this thesis, we take a step in this direction, moving towards a synthetic description of alternative theories in quantum foundations. After a brief philosophical introduction, we give a presentation of the mathematical concepts underpinning the foundations of physics, followed by an introduction to the foundations of quantum mechanics. The core of the thesis consists of three results chapters based on the articles in the author’s publications page. Chapter 4 analyses the logic of stabilizer quantum mechanics and provides a complete set of circuit equations for this sub-theory of quantum mechanics. Chapter 5 describes how quantum-like theories can be classified in a periodic table of theories. A pictorial calculus for alternative physical theories, called the ZX calculus for qudits, is then introduced and used as a tool to depict particular examples of quantum-like theories, including qudit stabilizer quantum mechanics and the SpekkensSchreiber toy theory. Chapter 6 presents an alternative set of quantum-like theories, called quantum collapse models. A novel quantum collapse model, where the rate of collapse depends on the Quantum Integrated Information of a physical system, is introduced and discussed in some detail. We then conclude with a brief summary of the main results.
Graphical languages offer intuitive and rigorous formalisms for quantum physics. They can be used to simplify expressions, derive equalities, and do computations. Yet in order to replace conventional formalisms, rigour alone is not sufficient: the new formalisms also need to have equivalent deductive power. This requirement is captured by the property of completeness, which means that any equality that can be derived using some standard formalism can also be derived graphically. In this thesis, I consider the ZX-calculus, a graphical language for pure state qubit quantum mechanics. I show that it is complete for pure state stabilizer quantum mechanics, so any problem within this fragment of quantum theory can be fully analysed using graphical methods. This includes questions of central importance in areas such as error-correcting codes or measurement-based quantum computation. Furthermore, I show that the ZX-calculus is complete for the single-qubit Clifford+T group, which is approximately universal: any single-qubit unitary can be approximated to arbitrary accuracy using only Clifford gates and the T-gate. [...] Lastly, I extend the use of rigorous graphical languages outside quantum theory to Spekkens' toy theory, a local hidden variable model that nevertheless exhibits some features commonly associated with quantum mechanics. [...] I develop a graphical calculus similar to the ZX-calculus that fully describes Spekkens' toy theory, and show that it is complete. Hence, stabilizer quantum mechanics and Spekkens' toy theory can be fully analysed and compared using graphical formalisms. Intuitive graphical languages can replace conventional formalisms for the analysis of many questions in quantum computation and foundations without loss of mathematical rigour or deductive power.
The ZX-calculus is a graphical calculus for reasoning about quantum systems and processes. It is known to be universal for pure state qubit quantum mechanics (QM), meaning any pure state, unitary operation and post-selected pure projective measurement can be expressed in the ZX-calculus. The calculus is also sound , i.e. any equality that can be derived graphically can also be derived using matrix mechanics. Here, we show that the ZX-calculus is complete for pure qubit stabilizer QM, meaning any equality that can be derived using matrices can also be derived pictorially. The proof relies on bringing diagrams into a normal form based on graph states and local Clifford operations.
Graphical languages offer intuitive and rigorous formalisms for quantum physics. They can be used to simplify expressions, derive equalities, and do computations. Yet in order to replace conventional formalisms, rigour alone is not sufficient: the new formalisms also need to have equivalent deductive power. This requirement is captured by the property of completeness, which means that any equality that can be derived using some standard formalism can also be derived graphically. In this thesis, I consider the ZX-calculus, a graphical language for pure state qubit quantum mechanics. I show that it is complete for pure state stabilizer quantum mechanics, so any problem within this fragment of quantum theory can be fully analysed using graphical methods. This includes questions of central importance in areas such as error-correcting codes or measurement-based quantum computation. Furthermore, I show that the ZX-calculus is complete for the single-qubit Clifford+T group, which is approximately universal: any single-qubit unitary can be approximated to arbitrary accuracy using only Clifford gates and the T-gate. [...] Lastly, I extend the use of rigorous graphical languages outside quantum theory to Spekkens' toy theory, a local hidden variable model that nevertheless exhibits some features commonly associated with quantum mechanics. [...] I develop a graphical calculus similar to the ZX-calculus that fully describes Spekkens' toy theory, and show that it is complete. Hence, stabilizer quantum mechanics and Spekkens' toy theory can be fully analysed and compared using graphical formalisms. Intuitive graphical languages can replace conventional formalisms for the analysis of many questions in quantum computation and foundations without loss of mathematical rigour or deductive power.
Spekkens ’ toy bit theory is a hidden variable theory which nevertheless reproduces significant parts of operational quantum mechanics. Here, we show that a graphical calculus induced from monoidal categories is complete for Spekkens ’ toy bit theory, i.e. any equality that can be derived in the toy bit theory can also be derived graphically. We do this by adapting a completeness proof for a similar graphical calculus for stabilizer quantum mechanics to the toy theory. In the process, we prove that graph states play a central role in Spekkens ’ toy bit theory, just as they do in stabilizer quantum mechanics. Furthermore, we show that the rewriting strategies used in the graphical calculus for stabilizer quantum mechanics work in the toy theory graphical calculus. 1
ZX-calculus is graphical language for quantum computing which usually focuses on qubits. In this paper, we generalise qubit ZX-calculus to qudit ZX-calculus in any finite dimension by introducing suitable generators, especially a carefully chosen triangle node. As a consequence we obtain a set of rewriting rules which can be seen as a direct generalisation of qubit rules, and a normal form for any qudit vectors. Based on the qudit ZX-calculi, we propose a graphical formalism called qufinite ZX-calculus as a unified framework for all qudit ZX-calculi, which is universal for finite quantum theory due to a normal form for matrix of any finite size. As a result, it would be interesting to give a fine-grained version of the diagrammatic reconstruction of finite quantum theory [Selby2021reconstructing] within the framework of qufinite ZX-calculus.