Measurement-based quantum computation--a quantum-mechanical toy model for spacetime?

Abstract

We propose measurement-based quantum computation (MBQC) as a quantum mechanical toy model for spacetime. Within this framework, we discuss the constraints on possible temporal orders enforced by certain symmetries present in every MBQC. We provide a classification for all MBQC temporal relations compatible with a given initial quantum state and measurement setting, in terms of a matroid. Further, we find a symmetry transformation related to local complementation that leaves the temporal relations invariant. After light cones and closed time-like curves have previously been found to have MBQC counterparts, we identify event horizons as a third piece of the phenomenology of General Relativity that has an analogue in MBQC.