Picturing Quantum Processes

Quantum phenomena are explained through the language of diagrams, setting out an innovative visual method of presenting complex scientific theories. Focusing on physical intuition over mathematical formalism, and packed with exercises, this unique book is accessible to students and researchers across scientific disciplines, from undergraduate to Ph.D. level.

The unique features of the quantum world are explained in this book through the language of diagrams, setting out an innovative visual method for presenting complex theories. Requiring only basic mathematical literacy, this book employs a unique formalism that builds an intuitive understanding of quantum features while eliminating the need for complex calculations. This entirely diagrammatic presentation of quantum theory represents the culmination of ten years of research, uniting classical techniques in linear algebra and Hilbert spaces with cutting-edge developments in quantum computation and foundations. Written in an entertaining and user-friendly style and including more than one hundred exercises, this book is an ideal first course in quantum theory, foundations, and computation for students from undergraduate to PhD level, as well as an opportunity for researchers from a broad range of fields, from physics to biology, linguistics, and cognitive science, to discover a new set of tools for studying processes and interaction.

Monoidal category theory serves as a powerful framework for describing logical aspects of quantum theory, giving an abstract language for parallel and sequential composition, and a conceptual way to understand many high-level quantum phenomena. This text lays the foundation for this categorical quantum mechanics, with an emphasis on the graphical calculus which makes computation intuitive. Biproducts and dual objects are introduced and used to model superposition and entanglement, with quantum teleportation studied abstractly using these structures. Monoids, Frobenius structures and Hopf algebras are described, and it is shown how they can be used to model classical information and complementary observables. The CP construction, a categorical tool to describe probabilistic quantum systems, is also investigated. The last chapter introduces higher categories, surface diagrams and 2-Hilbert spaces, and shows how the language of duality in monoidal 2-categories can be used to reason about quantum protocols, including quantum teleportation and dense coding. Prior knowledge of linear algebra, quantum information or category theory would give an ideal background for studying this text, but it is not assumed, with essential background material given in a self-contained introductory chapter. Throughout the text links with many other areas are highlighted, such as representation theory, topology, quantum algebra, knot theory, and probability theory, and nonstandard models are presented, such as sets and relations. All results are stated rigorously, and full proofs are given as far as possible, making this book an invaluable reference for modern techniques in quantum logic, with much of the material not available in any other textbook.

A new presentation of quantum theory and quantum information based on fundamental principles, for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the subject.

The unique features of the quantum world are explained in this book through the language of diagrams, setting out an innovative visual method for presenting complex theories. Requiring only basic mathematical literacy, this book employs a unique formalism that builds an intuitive understanding of quantum features while eliminating the need for complex calculations. This entirely diagrammatic presentation of quantum theory represents the culmination of ten years of research, uniting classical techniques in linear algebra and Hilbert spaces with cutting-edge developments in quantum computation and foundations. Written in an entertaining and user-friendly style and including more than one hundred exercises, this book is an ideal first course in quantum theory, foundations, and computation for students from undergraduate to PhD level, as well as an opportunity for researchers from a broad range of fields, from physics to biology, linguistics, and cognitive science, to discover a new set of tools for studying processes and interaction.

For almost every student of physics, the first course on quantum theory raises a lot of puzzling questions and creates a very uncertain picture of the quantum world. This book presents a clear and detailed exposition of the fundamental concepts of quantum theory: states, effects, observables, channels and instruments. It introduces several up-to-date topics, such as state discrimination, quantum tomography, measurement disturbance and entanglement distillation. A separate chapter is devoted to quantum entanglement. The theory is illustrated with numerous examples, reflecting recent developments in the field. The treatment emphasises quantum information, though its general approach makes it a useful resource for graduate students and researchers in all subfields of quantum theory. Focusing on mathematically precise formulations, the book summarises the relevant mathematics.

Automatic Quantum Computer Programming provides an introduction to quantum computing for non-physicists, as well as an introduction to genetic programming for non-computer-scientists. The book explores several ways in which genetic programming can support automatic quantum computer programming and presents detailed descriptions of specific techniques, along with several examples of their human-competitive performance on specific problems. Source code for the author’s QGAME quantum computer simulator is included as an appendix, and pointers to additional online resources furnish the reader with an array of tools for automatic quantum computer programming.

The rise of quantum electrodynamics (QED) made possible a number of excellent textbooks on quantum field theory in the 1960s. However, the rise of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and the Standard Model has made it urgent to have a fully modern textbook for the 1990s and beyond. Building on the foundation of QED, Quantum Field Theory: A Modern Introduction presents a clear and comprehensive discussion of the gauge revolution and the theoretical and experimental evidence which makes the Standard Model the leading theory of subatomic phenomena. The book is divided into three parts: Part I, Fields and Renormalization, lays a solid foundation by presenting canonical quantization, Feynman rules and scattering matrices, and renormalization theory. Part II, Gauge Theory and the Standard Model, focuses on the Standard Model and discusses path integrals, gauge theory, spontaneous symmetry breaking, the renormalization group, and BPHZ quantization. Part III, Non-perturbative Methods and Unification, discusses more advanced methods which now form an essential part of field theory, such as critical phenomena, lattice gauge theory, instantons, supersymmetry, quantum gravity, supergravity, and superstrings.