Quantum Gravity Computers: On the Theory of Computation with Indefinite Causal Structure

DOI10.1007/978-1-4020-9107-0_21MaRDI QIDQ3627832zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Lucien Hardy

Publication date 13 May 2009

Published in The Western Ontario Series in Philosophy of Science (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0701019

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Quantum computation (81P68) Einstein's equations (general structure, canonical formalism, Cauchy problems) (83C05) Methods of quantum field theory in general relativity and gravitational theory (83C47)

Abstract: A quantum gravity computer is one for which the particular effects of quantum gravity are relevant. In general relativity, causal structure is non-fixed. In quantum theory non-fixed quantities are subject to quantum uncertainty. It is therefore likely that, in a theory of quantum gravity, we will have indefinite causal structure. This means that there will be no matter of fact as to whether a particular interval is timelike or not. We study the implications of this for the theory of computation. Classical and quantum computations consist in ivolving the state of the computer through a sequence of time steps. This will, most likely, not be possible for a quantum gravity computer because the notion of a time step makes no sense if we have indefinite causal structure. We show that it is possible to set up a model for computation even in the absence of definite causal structure by using a certain framework (the causaloid formalism) that was developed for the purpose of correlating data taken in this type of situation. Corresponding to a physical theory is a causaloid, Lambda (this is a mathematical object containing information about the causal connections between different spacetime regions). A computer is given by the pair {Lambda, S} where S is a set of gates. Working within the causaloid formalism, we explore the question of whether universal quantum gravity computers are possible. We also examine whether a quantum gravity computer might be more powerful than a quantum (or classical) computer. In particular, we ask whether indefinite causal structure can be used as a computational resource.

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• Analysing causal structures with entropy
• The space of logically consistent classical processes without causal order
• Causal and causally separable processes
• Optimal quantum networks and one-shot entropies
• Quantum computation toward quantum gravity
• Constraints on physical computers in holographic spacetimes
• Indefinite causal order aids quantum depolarizing channel identification
• Is there causation in fundamental physics? New insights from process matrices and quantum causal modelling

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