13–16 Jul 2026
Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Campus
Europe/London timezone

A ribbon ZX calculus for gauge theory

14 Jul 2026, 18:00
1h 30m
Room MB-B11 (Mathematical Sciences Social Hub)

Room MB-B11

Mathematical Sciences Social Hub

Speaker

Gabriel Wong (Oxford math institute)

Description

ZX calculus provides a graphical formalism for reasoning about quantum processes, built from two interacting Frobenius algebras associated with the Z and X bases of a qubit. While it has found widespread application in quantum information and computing, its relationship to quantum field theory has only recently begun to be explored. In this work, we further develop this connection by providing a generalization of ZX calculus to two-dimensional Yang Mills theory with a compact gauge group. The key observation is that both frameworks can be organized around the Hopf Frobenius algebraic structure associated with a group algebra, which can in turn be described by the diagrammatics of two dimensional topological quantum field theory. Given the well known relationship between gauge theory and gravity in two and three dimensions, our work paves the way for applications of ZX to low dimensional gravity.

Authors

Gabriel Wong (Oxford math institute) Dr Razin Shaikh (Oxford) Dr William Donnelly

Presentation materials