English

The ZX-calculus is complete for stabilizer quantum mechanics

Quantum Physics 2014-09-22 v1

Abstract

The ZX-calculus is a graphical calculus for reasoning about quantum systems and processes. It is known to be universal for pure state qubit quantum mechanics, meaning any pure state, unitary operation and post-selected pure projective measurement can be expressed in the ZX-calculus. The calculus is also sound, i.e. any equality that can be derived graphically can also be derived using matrix mechanics. Here, we show that the ZX-calculus is complete for pure qubit stabilizer quantum mechanics, meaning any equality that can be derived using matrices can also be derived pictorially. The proof relies on bringing diagrams into a normal form based on graph states and local Clifford operations.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1307.7025,
  title  = {The ZX-calculus is complete for stabilizer quantum mechanics},
  author = {Miriam Backens},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1307.7025},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

26 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:58:23.984Z