Knot invariants and indefinite causal order
- Author(s)
- Samuel Fedida, Anne Catherine de la Hamette, Viktoria Kabel, Časlav Brukner
- Abstract
We explore indefinite causal order between events in the context of quasiclassical spacetimes in superposition. We introduce several new quantifiers to measure the degree of indefiniteness of the causal order for an arbitrary finite number of events and spacetime configurations in superposition. By constructing diagrammatic and knot-theoretic representations of the causal order between events, we find that the definiteness or maximal indefiniteness of the causal order is topologically invariant. This reveals an intriguing connection between the field of quantum causality and knot theory. Furthermore, we provide an operational encoding of indefinite causal order and discuss how to incorporate a measure of quantum coherence into our classification.
- Organisation(s)
- Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information
- External organisation(s)
- University of Cambridge, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (ÖAW)
- Journal
- Quantum
- Volume
- 9
- No. of pages
- 24
- ISSN
- 2521-327X
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2409.11448
- Publication date
- 10-2025
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 103028 Theory of relativity, 103012 High energy physics, 103025 Quantum mechanics
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/0b8fae02-167d-49c8-bdee-ad3c8c85b2ed