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arXiv:2606.28291

Composing Quantum Instruments

Robert I. Booth, Dominik Leichtle, Alex Rice, Kim Worrall

quant-phcs.LOmath-phmath.CTmath.OASubmitted Jun 26, 2026• Announced Jun 29, 2026• 0 citations
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Abstract

We study the composition of classically-controlled quantum instruments--the natural quantum analogue of Markov kernels. Classically, Markov kernels compose by integrating one kernel against another. Defining this composition for quantum instruments with continuous outcomes requires an integral of quantum channel-valued functions with respect to a quantum instrument. We construct this integral in the Heisenberg picture using the Okamura-Ozawa normal extension to a von Neumann tensor product. This integral recovers the expected finite formula, preserves normal complete positivity and subunitality, and provides the multiplication for a monad governing the composition of quantum instruments. As an immediate consequence, we identify the category of quantum Markov kernels as the Kleisli category of this monad.

Comments
Independent work "The quantum instrument monad" by Tobias Fritz develops a closely related construction in the Schrödinger picture. The two works provide complementary Schrödinger- and Heisenberg-picture formulations

Related papers

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We study the composition of classically-controlled quantum instruments--the natural quantum analogue of Markov kernels. Classically, Markov kernels compose by integrating one kernel against another. Defining this composition for quantum instruments with continuous outcomes requires an integral of quantum channel-valued functions with respect to a quantum instrument. We construct this integral in the Heisenberg picture using the Okamura-Ozawa normal extension to a von Neumann tensor product. This integral recovers the expected finite formula, preserves normal complete positivity and subunitality, and provides the multiplication for a monad governing the composition of quantum instruments. As an immediate consequence, we identify the category of quantum Markov kernels as the Kleisli category of this monad.
Monads are a ubiquitous structure in functional programming used for modelling computational effects. For example, the state monad models the effect of a computation interacting with a memory system. Here we introduce the quantum instrument monad IA\mathcal{I}_\mathcal{A}IA​, which models the effect of a computation interacting with a quantum system with algebra of observables A\mathcal{A}A. It can be thought of as a noncommutative generalization of the state monad. We construct this quantum instrument monad in two versions: a finitary version on the category of sets and a measure-theoretic version on the category of measurable spaces (the latter under the assumption that A\mathcal{A}A is a type I von Neumann algebra with separable predual). Both versions are strong monads. The construction of the measure-theoretic version is based on a new notion of integral of a quantum-operation-valued function against a state-valued measure.
We study completely positive (CP) [Formula: see text]-sesquilinear-form-valued maps on a unital [Formula: see text]-algebra [Formula: see text], where the sesquilinear forms operate on a module over a [Formula: see text]-algebra [Formula: see text]. We also study the cases when either one or both of the algebras are von Neumann algebras. Moreover, we assume that the CP maps are covariant with respect to actions of a symmetry group. This allows us to view these maps as generalizations of covariant quantum instruments. We determine minimal covariant dilations (KSGNS constructions) for covariant CP maps to find necessary and sufficient conditions for a CP map to be extreme in convex subsets of normalized covariant CP maps. As a special case, we study covariant quantum observables and instruments whose value space is a transitive space of a unimodular type-I group. Finally, we discuss the case of instruments that are covariant with respect to a square-integrable representation.
Many production quantum programming languages represent hybrid quantum computations by extending a classical base language with a quantum effect, where qubits are addressed by reference, and quantum operations are understood to mutate some external quantum state. However, the semantics of this view of quantum computation remains underdeveloped, especially when the language allows mid-circuit measurements and non-termination. In this work, we provide a general method for building denotational semantics for such languages, by defining the quantum orchestra monad, which precisely captures this style of quantum effect. The monad has a concrete presentation, being based on the formalism of quantum instruments, a common tool in quantum information theory for capturing the action of a quantum process along with its classical outcomes. It acts on the category DCPO, and so enables the interpretation of divergent hybrid programs. The quantum orchestra monad serves as a natural extension of both the classical state monad and the probabilistic powerdomain monad. We investigate some of the subtleties present when trying to naïvely extend these definitions to the quantum non-commutative case.
We develop a theory of integration with respect to quantum instruments through two complementary approaches: a vector measure formulation based on Bartle's integration theory and a tensor product construction. As a principal application, we establish a CP map-valued Lyapunov theorem by characterizing the convexity of the range of non-atomic completely positive instruments via the associated integration map. This extends the work of Plosker and Ramsey~\cite{Plosker_Ramsey} from POVMs to completely positive instruments and gives a general characterization of the phenomenon exhibited in their setting. We also establish a correspondence between completely positive instruments and completely positive maps, prove a Krein--Milman type theorem for the C∗C^*C∗-convex set of unital completely positive instruments, and show that the tensor product construction connects the theory of CP instruments with the integration theory for POVMs due to Farenick \emph{et al}(\cite{douglus_plosker_ramsey_povmintegration_1}).
Furber and Jacobs have shown in their study of quantum computation that the category of commutative C*-algebras and PU-maps (positive linear maps which preserve the unit) is isomorphic to the Kleisli category of a comonad on the category of commutative C*-algebras with MIU-maps (linear maps which preserve multiplication, involution and unit). [Furber and Jacobs, 2013] In this paper, we prove a non-commutative variant of this result: the category of C*-algebras and PU-maps is isomorphic to the Kleisli category of a comonad on the subcategory of MIU-maps. A variation on this result has been used to construct a model of Selinger and Valiron's quantum lambda calculus using von Neumann algebras. [Cho and Westerbaan, 2016]
The basic integrator processes of quantum stochastic calculus, namely, creation, conservation, and annihilation, are introduced in the Hilbert space of square integrable Brownian functionals. Stochastic integrals with respect to these processes and a quantum Itô’s formula are described. As an application two examples of quantum stochastic differential equations are discussed. A continuous time version of Stinespring’s theorem on completely positive maps in C *-algebras is exploited to formulate the notion of a quantum Markov process and indicate how classical Markov processes are woven into the fabric of the Schodinger-Heisenberg dynamics of quantum theory.