A diagrammatic derivation of the Hermitian adjoint (Q1709176)

The article considers quantum mechanics as a process theory. Process theories consist of ``systems'' and ``processes'', represented as diagrams where lines (systems) enter or exit from boxes (processes), and a composition operation. Processes without input are called ``states'', while processes without output are called ``effects''. The process theories considered here are called ``tomographic process theories'', they are characterized by the fact that each process diagram has terminal systems starting form states and ending in effects, so that they can be characterized by scalars (here positive real numbers). The object of the paper is the analysis of the operation of Hermitian adjoint, operation generalized in process theories by the ``dagger'' operation. To do that, the concept of ``test structure'' is introduced, which is a mapping from states to effects satisfying certain conditions. For tomographic processes, it is shown that test structures can always be chosen as dagger. Furthermore, it is shown that for a quantum theory any test structure must be a Hermitian adjoint and that, instead, the transpose does not provide a test structure. Finally, it is shown that for additive process theories (consequently allowing mixed states) no test theory is possible. The operational meaning of the Hermitian adjoint for pure states is consequently identified with the test structure. All proofs are done only by manipulating diagrams.