TQFTs and quantum computing

Abstract

Quantum computing is captured in the formalism of the monoidal subcategory of $\textbf{Vect}_{\mathbb C}$ generated by $\mathbb C^2$ -- in particular, quantum circuits are diagrams in $\textbf{Vect}_{\mathbb C}$ -- while topological quantum field theories, in the sense of Atiyah, are diagrams in $\textbf{Vect}_{\mathbb C}$ indexed by cobordisms. We initiate a program that formalizes this connection. In doing so, we equip cobordisms with machinery for producing linear maps by parallel transport along curves under a connection and then assemble these structures into a double category. Finite-dimensional complex vector spaces and linear maps between them are given a suitable double categorical structure which we call $\mathbb F\textbf{Vect}_{\mathbb C}$. We realize quantum circuits as images of cobordisms under monoidal double functors from these modified cobordisms to $\mathbb F\textbf{Vect}_{\mathbb C}$, which are computed by taking parallel transports of vectors and then combining the results in a pattern encoded in the domain double category.