A Complete Graphical Language for Linear Optical Circuits with Finite-Photon-Number Sources and Detectors
Nicolas Heurtel
TL;DR
This paper introduces the $\textbf{LO}_{fi}$-calculus, a graphical language to reason on the infinite-dimensional bosonic Fock space with circuits composed of four core elements of linear optics: the phase shifter, the beam splitter, and auxiliary sources and detectors with bounded photon number.
Abstract
Linear optical circuits can be used to manipulate the quantum states of photons as they pass through components including beam splitters and phase shifters. Those photonic states possess a particularly high level of expressiveness, as they reside within the bosonic Fock space, an infinite-dimensional Hilbert space. However, in the domain of linear optical quantum computation, these basic components may not be sufficient to efficiently perform all computations of interest, such as universal quantum computation. To address this limitation it is common to add auxiliary sources and detectors, which enable projections onto auxiliary photonic states and thus increase the versatility of the processes. In this paper, we introduce the $\textbf{LO}_{fi}$-calculus, a graphical language to reason on the infinite-dimensional bosonic Fock space with circuits composed of four core elements of linear optics: the phase shifter, the beam splitter, and auxiliary sources and detectors with bounded photon number. We present an equational theory that we prove to be complete: two $\textbf{LO}_{fi}$-circuits represent the same quantum process if and only if one can be transformed into the other with the rules of the $\textbf{LO}_{fi}$-calculus. We give a unique and compact universal form for such circuits.