Quantum computations without definite causal structure
Giulio Chiribella, Giacomo Mauro D’Ariano, Paolo Perinotti, Benoît Valiron · Physical Review A · 2013
We show that quantum theory allows for transformations of black boxes that cannot be realized by inserting the input black boxes within a circuit in a predefined causal order. The simplest example of such a transformation is the classical switch of black boxes, where two input black boxes are arranged in two different orders conditionally on the value of a classical bit. The quantum version of this transformation---the quantum switch---produces an output circuit where the order of the connections is controlled by a quantum bit, which becomes entangled with the circuit structure. Simulating these transformations in a circuit with fixed causal structure requires either postselection or an extra query to the input black boxes.