English

Quantum Causal Graph Dynamics

Discrete Mathematics 2021-11-04 v2 General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology Quantum Physics

Abstract

Consider a graph having quantum systems lying at each node. Suppose that the whole thing evolves in discrete time steps, according to a global, unitary causal operator. By causal we mean that information can only propagate at a bounded speed, with respect to the distance given by the graph. Suppose, moreover, that the graph itself is subject to the evolution, and may be driven to be in a quantum superposition of graphs---in accordance to the superposition principle. We show that these unitary causal operators must decompose as a finite-depth circuit of local unitary gates. This unifies a result on Quantum Cellular Automata with another on Reversible Causal Graph Dynamics. Along the way we formalize a notion of causality which is valid in the context of quantum superpositions of time-varying graphs, and has a number of good properties. Keywords: Quantum Lattice Gas Automata, Block-representation, Curtis-Hedlund-Lyndon, No-signalling, Localizability, Quantum Gravity, Quantum Graphity, Causal Dynamical Triangulations, Spin Networks, Dynamical networks, Graph Rewriting.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1607.06700,
  title  = {Quantum Causal Graph Dynamics},
  author = {Pablo Arrighi and Simon Martiel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1607.06700},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

8 pages, 1 figure

R2 v1 2026-06-22T15:01:43.765Z