The Universe as a Quantum Computer

This article presents a sequential growth model for the universe that acts like a quantum computer. The basic constituents of the model are a special type of causal set (causet) called a $c$-causet. A $c$-causet is defined to be a causet that is independent of its labeling. We characterize $c$-causets as those causets that form a multipartite graph or equivalently those causets whose elements are comparable whenever their heights are different. We show that a $c$-causet has precisely two $c$-causet offspring. It follows that there are $2^n$ $c$-causets of cardinality $n+1$. This enables us to classify $c$-causets of cardinality $n+1$ in terms of $n$-bits. We then quantize the model by introducing a quantum sequential growth process. This is accomplished by replacing the $n$-bits by $n$-qubits and defining transition amplitudes for the growth transitions. We mainly consider two types of processes called stationary and completely stationary. We show that for stationary processes, the probability operators are tensor products of positive rank-1 qubit operators. Moreover, the converse of this result holds. Simplifications occur for completely stationary processes. We close with examples of precluded events.