Quantum Field Theory in Categorical Quantum Mechanics

Stefano Gogioso
(University of Oxford)
Fabrizio Genovese
(University of Oxford)

We use tools from non-standard analysis to formulate the building blocks of quantum field theory within the framework of categorical quantum mechanics. Building upon previous work, we construct an object of *Hilb having quantum fields as states and we show that the usual ladder and field operators can be defined as suitable endomorphisms. We deal with relativistic normalisation and we obtain the Lorentz invariant Heisenberg picture operators. By moving to a coherent perspective—where the classical time and momentum parameters are replaced by wavefunctions over the parameter spaces—we show that ladder operators and field operators can be obtained by applying the same morphism to plane waves and delta functions respectively. Finally, we formulate the commutation relations diagrammatically and we use them to derive the propagator.

In Peter Selinger and Giulio Chiribella: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Quantum Physics and Logic (QPL 2018), Halifax, Canada, 3-7th June 2018, Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science 287, pp. 163–177.
Published: 31st January 2019.

ArXived at: https://dx.doi.org/10.4204/EPTCS.287.9 bibtex PDF
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