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Quantum sets

Andre Kornell

Published Apr 2, 2018• 1 citation
OpenAlex

Abstract

A quantum set is defined to be simply a set of nonzero finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Together with binary relations, essentially the quantum relations of Weaver, quantum sets form a dagger compact category. Functions between quantum sets are certain binary relations that can be characterized in terms of this dagger compact structure, and the resulting category of quantum sets and functions generalizes the category of ordinary sets and functions in the manner of noncommutative mathematics. In particular, this category is dual to a subcategory of von Neumann algebras. The basic properties of quantum sets are presented thoroughly, with the noncommutative dictionary in mind, and with an eye to convenient application. As a motivating example, a notion of quantum graph coloring is derived within this framework, and it is shown to be equivalent to the notion that appears in the quantum information theory literature.

Related papers

Quantum sets

Andre Kornell

A quantum set is defined to be simply a set of nonzero finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Together with binary relations, essentially the quantum relations of Weaver, quantum sets form a dagger compact category. Functions between quantum sets are certain binary relations that can be characterized in terms of this dagger compact structure, and the resulting category of quantum sets and functions generalizes the category of ordinary sets and functions in the manner of noncommutative mathematics. In particular, this category is dual to a subcategory of von Neumann algebras. The basic properties of quantum sets are presented thoroughly, with the noncommutative dictionary in mind, and with an eye to convenient application. As a motivating example, a notion of quantum graph coloring is derived within this framework, and it is shown to be equivalent to the notion that appears in the quantum information theory literature.

arXiv:1804.00581•Journal of Mathematical Physics•Oct 1, 2020•14 citations

Quantum predicate logic with equality

Andre Kornell

The quantum propositional logic of Birkhoff and von Neumann is the logic of Boolean observables on a quantum system. The quantum predicate logic of Weaver extends this quantum propositional logic to a logic of Boolean observables on composite quantum systems. We investigate a variant of this quantum predicate logic in which the physical systems are modeled by hereditarily atomic von Neumann algebras. Such physical systems may be infinite-dimensional, but their superselection sectors are finite-dimensional. From the perspective of noncommutative mathematics, they are a quantum generalization of sets. We define an equality relation on each such quantum set. This definition allows us to axiomatize several classes of discrete quantum structures within quantum predicate logic, including quantum graphs, quantum groups and quantum metric spaces. We likewise characterize the quantum isomorphism of simple graphs. The proof that discrete quantum groups may be so axiomatized is due to Stefaan Vaes.

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Toy Quantum Categories (Extended Abstract)

Bob Coecke, Bill Edwards

We show that Rob Spekken's toy quantum theory arises as an instance of our categorical approach to quantum axiomatics, as a (proper) subcategory of the dagger compact category FRel of finite sets and relations with the cartesian product as tensor, where observables correspond to dagger Frobenius algebras. This in particular implies that the quantum-like properties of the toy model are in fact very general categorytheoretic properties. We also show the remarkable fact that we can already interpret complementary quantum observables on the two-element set in FRel. Keywords: Quantum category, dagger symmetric monoidal category, finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, FdHilb, FRel

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COMPOSITIONAL QUANTUM LOGIC

Bob Coecke, Chris Heunen, Aleks Kissinger

Abstract. Quantum logic aims to capture essential quantum mechanical structure in order-theoretic terms. The Achilles ’ heel of quantum logic is the absence of a canonical description of composite systems, given descriptions of their components. We introduce a framework in which order-theoretic structure comes with a primitive composition operation. The order is extracted from a generalisation of C*-algebra that applies to arbitrary dagger symmetric monoidal categories, which also provide the composition operation. In fact, our construction is entirely compositional, without any additional assumptions on limits or enrichment. Interpreted in the category of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, it yields the projection lattices of arbitrary finite-dimensional C*-algebras. Interestingly, there are models that falsify standardly assumed correspondences, most notably the correspondence between noncommutativity of the algebra and nondistributivity of the order. 1.

•Sep 23, 2013•11 citations

Toy quantum categories

Bob Coecke, Bill Edwards

We show that Rob Spekken's toy quantum theory arises as an instance of our categorical approach to quantum axiomatics, as a (proper) subcategory of the dagger compact category FRel of finite sets and relations with the cartesian product as tensor, where observables correspond to dagger Frobenius algebras. This in particular implies that the quantum-like properties of the toy model are in fact very general category-theoretic properties. We also show the remarkable fact that we can already interpret complementary quantum observables on the two-element set FRel.

arXiv:0808.1037•Aug 7, 2008•35 citations
A quantum set is defined to be simply a set of nonzero finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Together with binary relations, essentially the quantum relations of Weaver, quantum sets form a dagger compact category. Functions between quantum sets are certain binary relations that can be characterized in terms of this dagger compact structure, and the resulting category of quantum sets and functions generalizes the category of ordinary sets and functions in the manner of noncommutative mathematics. In particular, this category is dual to a subcategory of von Neumann algebras. The basic properties of quantum sets are presented thoroughly, with the noncommutative dictionary in mind, and with an eye to convenient application. As a motivating example, a notion of quantum graph coloring is derived within this framework, and it is shown to be equivalent to the notion that appears in the quantum information theory literature.
A quantum set is defined to be simply a set of nonzero finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces. Together with binary relations, essentially the quantum relations of Weaver, quantum sets form a dagger compact category. Functions between quantum sets are certain binary relations that can be characterized in terms of this dagger compact structure, and the resulting category of quantum sets and functions generalizes the category of ordinary sets and functions in the manner of noncommutative mathematics. In particular, this category is dual to a subcategory of von Neumann algebras. The basic properties of quantum sets are presented thoroughly, with the noncommutative dictionary in mind, and with an eye to convenient application. As a motivating example, a notion of quantum graph coloring is derived within this framework, and it is shown to be equivalent to the notion that appears in the quantum information theory literature.
The quantum propositional logic of Birkhoff and von Neumann is the logic of Boolean observables on a quantum system. The quantum predicate logic of Weaver extends this quantum propositional logic to a logic of Boolean observables on composite quantum systems. We investigate a variant of this quantum predicate logic in which the physical systems are modeled by hereditarily atomic von Neumann algebras. Such physical systems may be infinite-dimensional, but their superselection sectors are finite-dimensional. From the perspective of noncommutative mathematics, they are a quantum generalization of sets. We define an equality relation on each such quantum set. This definition allows us to axiomatize several classes of discrete quantum structures within quantum predicate logic, including quantum graphs, quantum groups and quantum metric spaces. We likewise characterize the quantum isomorphism of simple graphs. The proof that discrete quantum groups may be so axiomatized is due to Stefaan Vaes.
We introduce a notion of quantum function and develop a compositional framework for finite quantum set theory based on a 2-category of quantum sets and quantum functions. We use this framework to formulate a 2-categorical theory of quantum graphs, which captures the quantum graphs and quantum graph homomorphisms recently discovered in the study of nonlocal games and zero-error communication and relates them to quantum automorphism groups of graphs considered in the setting of compact quantum groups. We show that the 2-categories of quantum sets and quantum graphs are semisimple. We analyze dualisable and invertible 1-morphisms in these 2-categories and show that they correspond precisely to the existing notions of quantum isomorphism and classical isomorphism between sets and graphs.
We show that Rob Spekken's toy quantum theory arises as an instance of our categorical approach to quantum axiomatics, as a (proper) subcategory of the dagger compact category FRel of finite sets and relations with the cartesian product as tensor, where observables correspond to dagger Frobenius algebras. This in particular implies that the quantum-like properties of the toy model are in fact very general categorytheoretic properties. We also show the remarkable fact that we can already interpret complementary quantum observables on the two-element set in FRel. Keywords: Quantum category, dagger symmetric monoidal category, finite dimensional Hilbert spaces, FdHilb, FRel
Abstract. Quantum logic aims to capture essential quantum mechanical structure in order-theoretic terms. The Achilles ’ heel of quantum logic is the absence of a canonical description of composite systems, given descriptions of their components. We introduce a framework in which order-theoretic structure comes with a primitive composition operation. The order is extracted from a generalisation of C*-algebra that applies to arbitrary dagger symmetric monoidal categories, which also provide the composition operation. In fact, our construction is entirely compositional, without any additional assumptions on limits or enrichment. Interpreted in the category of finite-dimensional Hilbert spaces, it yields the projection lattices of arbitrary finite-dimensional C*-algebras. Interestingly, there are models that falsify standardly assumed correspondences, most notably the correspondence between noncommutativity of the algebra and nondistributivity of the order. 1.
We show that Rob Spekken's toy quantum theory arises as an instance of our categorical approach to quantum axiomatics, as a (proper) subcategory of the dagger compact category FRel of finite sets and relations with the cartesian product as tensor, where observables correspond to dagger Frobenius algebras. This in particular implies that the quantum-like properties of the toy model are in fact very general category-theoretic properties. We also show the remarkable fact that we can already interpret complementary quantum observables on the two-element set FRel.