Mixed-state TQFTs
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Abstract
In this short note, we propose a generalization of Atiyah type TQFTs from pure states to mixed states in the sense that the Hilbert space of pure states associated to a space manifold is replaced by a quantum coherent space related to density matrices. Atiyah type TQFT is a symmetric monoidal functor from the Bord category of manifolds to the category Vec of finite dimensional vector spaces. In this paper, we define mixed-state TQFTs by replacing the target category Vec by QCS–the category of quantum coherent spaces, then a mixedstate TQFT is simply a symmetric monoidal functor from Bord to QCS. We also discuss how to construct interesting examples from subsystem quantum error correction codes beyond the trivial ones–all Atiyah type TQFTs.