String diagram
String diagrams are a formal graphical language for representing morphisms in monoidal categories, or more generally 2-cells in 2-categories. They are a prominent tool in applied category theory. When interpreted in the monoidal category of vector spaces and linear maps with the tensor product, string diagrams are called tensor networks or Penrose graphical notation. This has led to the development of categorical quantum mechanics where the axioms of quantum theory are expressed in the language of monoidal categories. History Günter Hotz gave the first mathematical definition of string diagrams in order to formalise electronic circuits. However, the invention of string diagrams is usually credited to Roger Penrose, with Feynman diagrams also described as a precursor. They were later characterised as the arrows of free monoidal categories in a seminal article by André Joyal and Ross Street. While the diagrams in these first articles were hand-drawn, the advent of typesetting software such as LaTeX and PGF/TikZ made the publication of string diagrams more wide-spread. The existential graphs and diagrammatic reasoning of Charles Sanders Peirce are arguably the oldest form of string diagrams, they are interpreted in the monoidal category of finite sets and relations with the Cartesian product. The lines of