LOv-Calculus: A Graphical Language for Linear Optical Quantum Circuits

Abstract

We introduce the LOv-calculus, a graphical language for reasoning about linear optical quantum circuits with so-called vacuum state auxiliary inputs. We present the axiomatics of the language and prove its soundness and completeness: two LOv-circuits represent the same quantum process if and only if one can be transformed into the other with the rules of the LOv-calculus. We give a confluent and terminating rewrite system to rewrite any polarisation-preserving LOv-circuit into a unique triangular normal form, inspired by the universal decomposition of Reck et al. (1994) for linear optical quantum circuits.