The "noncommutative graphs" which arise in quantum error correction are a special case of the quantum relations introduced in [N. Weaver, Quantum relations, Mem. Amer. Math. Soc. 215 (2012), v-vi, 81-140]. We use this perspective to interpret the Knill-Laflamme error-correction conditions [E. Knill and R. Laflamme, Theory of quantum error-correcting codes, Phys. Rev. A 55 (1997), 900-911] in terms of graph-theoretic independence, to give intrinsic characterizations of Stahlke's noncommutative graph homomorphisms [D. Stahlke, Quantum source-channel coding and non-commutative graph theory, arXiv:1405.5254] and Duan, Severini, and Winter's noncommutative bipartite graphs [R. Duan, S. Severini, and A. Winter, Zero-error communication via quantum channels, noncommutative graphs, and a quantum Lovasz number, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory 59 (2013), 1164-1174], and to realize the noncommutative confusability graph associated to a quantum channel as the pullback of a diagonal relation. Our framew 查看全文>>