Abstract

Within the context of an involutive monoidal category the notion of a comparison relation ${\mathsf{cp} : \overline{X} \otimes X \rightarrow \Omega}$ is identified. Instances are equality = on sets, inequality ${\leq}$ on posets, orthogonality ${\perp}$ on orthomodular lattices, non-empty intersection on powersets, and inner product ${\langle {-}|{-} \rangle}$ on vector or Hilbert spaces. Associated with a collection of such (symmetric) comparison relations a dagger category is defined with “tame” relations as morphisms. Examples include familiar categories in the foundations of quantum mechanics, such as sets with partial injections, or with locally bifinite relations, or with formal distributions between them, or Hilbert spaces with bounded (continuous) linear maps. Of one particular example of such a dagger category of tame relations, involving sets and bifinite multirelations between them, the categorical structure is investigated in some detail. It turns out to involve symmetric monoidal dagger structure, with biproducts, and dagger kernels. This category may form an appropriate universe for discrete quantum computations, just like Hilbert spaces form a universe for continuous computation