A paradigm to build a quantum computer, based on topological invariants is highlighted. The identities in the ensemble of knots, links and braids originally discovered in relation to topological quantum field theory are shown: how they define Artin braid group -- the mathematical basis of topological quantum computation (TQC). Vector spaces of TQC correspond to associated strings of particle interactions, and TQC operates its calculations on braided strings of special physical quasiparticles -- anyons -- with non-Abelian statistics. The physical platform of TQC is to use the topological quantum numbers of such small groups of anyons as qubits and to perform operations on these qubits by exchanging the anyons, both within the groups that form the qubits and, for multi-qubit gates, between groups. By braiding two or more anyons, they acquire up a topological phase or Berry phase similar to that found in the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Topological matter such as fractional quantum Hall systems and novel discovered topological insulators open the way to form system of anyons -- Majorana fermions -- with the unique property of encoding and processing quantum information in a naturally fault-tolerant way. In the topological insulators, due to its fundamental attribute of topological surface state occurrence of the bound, Majorana fermions are generated at its heterocontact with superconductors. One of the key operations of TQC -- braiding of non-Abelian anyons: it is illustrated how it can be implemented in one-dimensional topological isolator wire networks.
Abstract This paper is an introduction to relationships between quantum topology and quantum computing. We discuss unitary solutions to the YangBaxter equation that are universal quantum gates, quantum entanglement and topological entanglement, and we give an exposition of knot-theoretic recoupling theory, its relationship with topological quantum field theory and apply these methods to produce unitary representations of the braid groups that are dense in the unitary groups. Our methods are rooted in the bracket state sum model for the Jones polynomial. We give our results for a large class of representations based on values for the bracket polynomial that are roots of unity. We make a separate and self-contained study of the quantum universal Fibonacci model in this framework. We apply our results to give quantum algorithms for the computation of the colored Jones polynomials for knots and links, and the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant of three manifolds.
Kauffman and Lomonaco (New J Phys 4:73.1–73.18, 2002. arXiv:quant-ph/0401090 , New J Phys 6:134.1–134.40, 2004) explored the idea of understanding quantum entanglement (the non-local correlation of certain properties of particles) topologically by viewing unitary entangling operators as braiding operators. In Alagic et al. (Yang–Baxter operators need quantum entanglement to distinguish knots, 2015. arXiv:1507.05979v1 ), it is shown that entanglement is a necessary condition for forming non-trivial invariants of knots from braid closures via solutions to the Yang–Baxter equation. We show that the arguments used by Alagic et al. (2015) generalize to essentially the same results for quantum invariant state summation models of knots. In one case (the unoriented swap case) we give an example of a Yang–Baxter operator, and associated quantum invariant, that can detect the Hopf link. Again this is analogous to the results of Alagic et al. (2015). We also give a class of R matrices that are entangling and are weak invariants of classical knots and links yet strong invariants of virtual knots and links. We also give an example of an SU(2) representation of the three-strand braid group that models the Jones polynomial for closures of three-strand braids. This invariant is a quantum model for the Jones polynomial restricted to three-strand braids, and it does not involve quantum entanglement. These relationships between topological braiding and quantum entanglement can be used as a framework for future work in understanding the properties of entangling gates in topological quantum computing. The paper ends with a discussion of the Aravind hypothesis about the direct relationship of knots and quantum entanglement and the
ER=EPR E R = E P R hypothesis about the relationship of quantum entanglement with the connectivity of space. We describe how, given a background space and a quantum tensor network, to construct a new topological space that welds the network and the background space together. This construction embodies the principle that quantum entanglement and topological connectivity are intimately related.
A model of a D-Brane Topological Quantum Computer (DBTQC) is presented and sustained. The model is based on four-dimensional TQFTs of the Donaldson-Witten and Seiber-Witten kinds. It is argued that the DBTQC is able to compute Khovanov homology for knots, links and graphs. The DBTQC physically incorporates the mathematical process of categorification according to which the invariant polynomials for knots, links and graphs such as Jones, HOMFLY, Tutte and Bollobás-Riordan polynomials can be computed as the Euler characteristics corresponding to special homology complexes associated with knots, links and graphs. The DBTQC is conjectured as a powerful universal quantum computer in the sense that the DBTQC computes Khovanov homology which is considered like powerful that the Jones polynomial.
Models for topological quantum computation are based on braiding and fusing anyons (quasiparticles of fractional statistics) in (2+1)-D. The anyons that can exist in a physical theory are determined by the symmetry group of the Hamiltonian. In the case that the Hamiltonian undergoes spontaneous symmetry breaking of the full symmetry group G to a finite residual gauge group H, particles are given by representations of the quantum double
D(H) of the subgroup. The quasi-triangular Hopf Algebra D(H) is obtained from Drinfeld's quantum double construction applied to the algebra F(H) of functions on the finite group H. A major new contribution of this work is a program written in MAGMA to compute the particles (and their properties - including spin) that can exist in a system with an arbitrary finite residual gauge group, in addition to the braiding and fusion rules for those particles. We compute explicitly the fusion rules for two non-abelian group doubles suggested for universal quantum computation:
S3 and
A5, and discover some interesting results, subsystems, and symmetries in the tables. SO(3)_4 (the restriction of Chern-Simons theory
SU(2)4) and its mirror image are discovered as 3-particle subsystems in the 8-particle
S3 quantum double. The tables demonstrate that both
S3 and
A5 anyons are all Majorana, but this is not the case for all finite groups. In the appendices, the quantum doubles for the remaining nonabelian subgroups of SO(3) -
S4,
A4, and
D4 (the second in the infinite family
Dn) - are tabulated and analyzed. In addition, the probabilities of obtaining any given fusion product in quantum computation applications are determined and programmed in MAGMA. Throughout, connections to possible experiments are mentioned.