This thesis aims at connecting the two research programs known as Categorical Quantum Mechanics and Dynamic Quantum Logic. This is achieved in three steps. First we define a procedure to extract a Modal Logic frame from a small category and a functor into the category of sets and relations. Second, we extend such methodology to locally small categories. Third, we apply it to the category of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces to recover the semantics of Dynamic Quantum Logic. This process prompts new lines of research. At a general level, we study some logics arising from wide classes of small categories. In the case of Hilbert spaces, we investigate how to obtain richer semantics, containing probabilistic information. We design a logic for this semantics and prove that, via translation, it preserves the validities of Dynamic Quantum Logic.
This thesis aims at connecting the two research programs known as Categorical Quantum Mechanics and Dynamic Quantum Logic. This is achieved in three steps. First we define a procedure to extract a Modal Logic frame from a small category and a functor into the category of sets and relations. Second, we extend such methodology to locally small categories. Third, we apply it to the category of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces to recover the semantics of Dynamic Quantum Logic. This process prompts new lines of research. At a general level, we study some logics arising from wide classes of small categories. In the case of Hilbert spaces, we investigate how to obtain richer semantics, containing probabilistic information. We design a logic for this semantics and prove that, via translation, it preserves the validities of Dynamic Quantum Logic.
The study of the foundations of Quantum Mechanics, especially after the advent of Quantum Computation and Information, has benefited from the application of category-theoretic tools and modal logics to the analysis of Quantum processes: we witness a wealth of theoretical frameworks casted in either of the two languages. This paper explores the interplay of the two formalisms in the peculiar context of Quantum Theory. After a review of some influential abstract frameworks, we show how different modal logic frames can be extracted from the category of finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, connecting the Categorical Quantum Mechanics approach to some modal logics that have been proposed for Quantum Computing. We then apply a general version of the same technique to two other categorical frameworks, the ‘topos approach’ of Doering and Isham and the sheaf-theoretic work on contextuality by Abramsky and Brandenburger, suggesting how some key features can be expressed with modal languages.
This thesis develops the categorical proof theory for the non-compact multiplicative dagger linear logic, and investigates its applications to Categorical Quantum Mechanics (CQM). The existing frameworks of CQM are categorical proof theories of compact dagger linear logic, and are motivated by the interpretation of quantum systems in the category of finite dimensional Hilbert spaces. This thesis describes a new non-compact framework called Mixed Unitary Categories which can accommodate infinite dimensional systems, and develops models for the framework. To this end, it builds on linearly distributive categories, and ∗-autonomous categories which are categorical proof theories of (non-compact) multiplicative linear logic. The proof theory of non-compact dagger-linear logic is obtained from the basic setting of an LDC by adding a dagger functor satisfying appropriate coherences to give a dagger-LDC. From every (isomix) dagger-LDC one can extract a canonical "unitary core" which up to equivalence is the traditional CQM framework of dagger-monoidal categories. This leads to the framework of Mixed Unitary Categories (MUCs): every MUC contains a (compact) unitary core which is extended by a (non-compact) isomix dagger-LDC. Various models of MUCs based on Finiteness Spaces, Chu spaces, Hopf modules, etc., are developed in this thesis. This thesis also generalizes the key algebraic structures of CQM, such as observables, measurement, and complementarity, to MUC framework. Furthermore, using the MUC framework, this thesis establishes a connection between the complementary observables of quantum mechanics and the exponential modalities of linear logic.
Categorical quantum mechanics exploits the dagger compact closed structure of finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, and uses the graphical calculus of string diagrams to facilitate reasoning about finite dimensional processes. A significant portion of quantum physics, however, involves reasoning about infinite dimensional processes, and it is well-known that the category of all Hilbert spaces is not compact closed. Thus, a limitation of using dagger compact closed categories is that one cannot directly accommodate reasoning about infinite dimensional processes. A natural categorical generalization of compact closed categories, in which infinite dimensional spaces can be modelled, is *-autonomous categories and, more generally, linearly distributive categories. This article starts the development of this direction of generalizing categorical quantum mechanics. An important first step is to establish the behaviour of the dagger in these more general settings. Thus, these notes simultaneously develop the categorical semantics of multiplicative dagger linear logic. The notes end with the definition of a mixed unitary category. It is this structure which is subsequently used to extend the key features of categorical quantum mechanics.
This paper explores the application of category theory to provide a semantic framework for quantum vector spaces, which are fundamental to quantum mechanics and quantum information. We move beyond the traditional algebraic and analytical descriptions of Hilbert spaces to adopt a more abstract, compositional, and graphical approach rooted in monoidal categories. This categorical perspective allows for a unified understanding of quantum phenomena, including superposition, entanglement, and measurement, by representing quantum systems as objects and processes as morphisms. We delve into the concept of compact closed categories and dagger symmetric monoidal categories as the appropriate mathematical structures to capture the essential features of quantum theory, such as duality, adjoints, and the tensor product for composite systems. Furthermore, the paper discusses how graphical calculi, arising from these categorical structures, offer an intuitive and rigorous method for reasoning about quantum protocols and computations, facilitating the design and verification of quantum algorithms. By providing a high-level, axiomatic framework, categorical semantics clarifies the foundational principles of quantum mechanics and opens new avenues for developing quantum programming languages and understanding the interplay between quantum information and computation.
The long-term goal of our research is to develop a powerful quantum logic which is useful in the formal verification of quantum programs and protocols. In this paper we introduce the basic idea of our categorical logic of quantum programs (CLQP): It combines the logic of quantum programming (LQP) and categorical quantum mechanics (CQM) such that the advantages of both LQP and CQM are preserved while their disadvantages are overcome. We present the syntax, semantics and proof system of CLQP. As a proof-of-concept, we apply CLQP to verify the correctness of Deutsch's algorithm and the concealing property of quantum bit commitment.
. A central theme in current work in quantum information and quantum foundations is to see quantum mechanics as occupying one point in a space of possible theories, and to use this perspective to understand the special features and properties which single it out, and the possibilities for alternative theories. Two formalisms which have been used in this context are operational theories , and categorical quantum mechanics . The aim of the present paper is to establish strong connections between these two formalisms. We show how models of categorical quantum mechanics have representations as operational theories. We then show how non-locality can be formulated at this level of generality, and study a number of examples from this point of view, including Hilbert spaces, sets and relations, and stochastic maps. The local, quantum, and no-signalling models are characterized in these terms. Introduction. A central theme in current work in quantum information and quantum foundations is to see quantum mechanics as occupying one point in a space of possible theories, and to use this perspective to understand the special features and properties which single it out, and the possibilities for alternative theories. Two formalisms which have been used in this context are operational theories [48, 41, 52, 47], and categorical quantum mechanics [6, 7]. • Operational theories allow general formulations of results in quantum foundations and quantum information [11, 12, 10]. They also play a prominent rôle in current work on axiomatizations of quantum mechanics [36, 19, 49, 25]. • Categorical quantum mechanics enables a high-level approach to quantum information and quantum foundations, which can be presented in terms of string-diagram representations of structures in monoidal categories [7]. This has proved very effective in providing a conceptually illuminating and technically powerful perspective on a range of topics, including quantum protocols [6], entanglement [24], measurement-based quantum computing [29], no-cloning [1], and non-locality [22]. The aim of the present paper is to establish strong connections between these two formalisms. We shall begin by reviewing operational theories. We then show how a proper formulation of compound systems within the operational framework leads to a view of operational theories as representations of monoidal categories of a particular form. We call these operational representations .