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arXiv:1412.4460

Quantum knots and the number of knot mosaics

Seungsang Oh, Kyungpyo Hong, Ho Lee, Hwa Jeong Lee

Published Dec 15, 2014• 1 citation
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Abstract

Lomonaco and Kauffman developed a knot mosaic system to introduce a precise and workable definition of a quantum knot system. This definition is intended to represent an actual physical quantum system. A knot (m,n)-mosaic is an $m \times n$ matrix of mosaic tiles ($T_0$ through $T_{10}$ depicted in the introduction) representing a knot or a link by adjoining properly that is called suitably connected. $D^{(m,n)}$ is the total number of all knot (m,n)-mosaics. This value indicates the dimension of the Hilbert space of these quantum knot system. $D^{(m,n)}$ is already found for $m,n \leq 6$ by the authors. In this paper, we construct an algorithm producing the precise value of $D^{(m,n)}$ for $m,n \geq 2$ that uses recurrence relations of state matrices that turn out to be remarkably efficient to count knot mosaics. $$ D^{(m,n)} = 2 \, \| (X_{m-2}+O_{m-2})^{n-2} \| $$ where $2^{m-2} \times 2^{m-2}$ matrices $X_{m-2}$ and $O_{m-2}$ are defined by $$ X_{k+1} = \begin{bmatrix} X_k & O_k \\ O_k & X_k \end{bmatrix} \ \mbox{and } \ O_{k+1} = \begin{bmatrix} O_k & X_k \\ X_k & 4 \, O_k \end{bmatrix} $$ for $k=0,1, \cdots, m-3$, with $1 \times 1$ matrices $X_0 = \begin{bmatrix} 1 \end{bmatrix}$ and $O_0 = \begin{bmatrix} 1 \end{bmatrix}$. Here $\|N\|$ denotes the sum of all entries of a matrix $N$. For $n=2$, $(X_{m-2}+O_{m-2})^0$ means the identity matrix of size $2^{m-2} \times 2^{m-2}$.

DOI
10.48550/arxiv.1412.4460

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The discovery of the Jones polynomial made an important connection between quantum physics and knot theory. Kauffman and Lomonaco introduced the knot mosaic system to define the quantum knot system for the purpose of representing an actual physical quantum system. This paper is inspired by an open question about the knot mosaic enumeration suggested by them. A knot [Formula: see text]-mosaic is an [Formula: see text] array of 11 mosaic tiles representing a knot diagram by adjoining properly. The total number [Formula: see text] of knot [Formula: see text]-mosaics, which indicates the dimension of the Hilbert space of the quantum knot system, is known to grow in a quadratic exponential rate. Recently, Oh et al. developed the state matrix recursion method producing the exact enumeration of knot mosaics, which uses a recursion formula of state matrices. Furthermore, they showed the existence of the knot mosaic constant [Formula: see text] and found its upper and lower bounds in a series of papers. The latest upper bound was obtained through two new concepts: quasimosaics and cling mosaics. As a sequel to this research program, we adjust the state matrix recursion method to handle cling mosaics inside a quasimosaic, which is called the progressive state matrix recursion method. This method provides recursive matrix-relations producing a sharper bound of the knot mosaic constant: [Formula: see text]
In this paper, we give a precise and workable definition of a quantum knot system, the states of which are called quantum knots. This definition can be viewed as a blueprint for the construction of an actual physical quantum system. Moreover, this definition of a quantum knot system is intended to represent the "quantum embodiment" of a closed knotted physical piece of rope. A quantum knot, as a state of this system, represents the state of such a knotted closed piece of rope, i.e., the particular spatial configuration of the knot tied in the rope. Associated with a quantum knot system is a group of unitary transformations, called the ambient group, which represents all possible ways of moving the rope around (without cutting the rope, and without letting the rope pass through itself.) Of course, unlike a classical closed piece of rope, a quantum knot can exhibit non-classical behavior, such as quantum superposition and quantum entanglement. This raises some interesting and puzzling questions about the relation between topological and quantum entanglement. The knot type of a quantum knot is simply the orbit of the quantum knot under the action of the ambient group. We investigate quantum observables which are invariants of quantum knot type. We also study the Hamiltonians associated with the generators of the ambient group, and briefly look at the quantum tunneling of overcrossings into undercrossings. A basic building block in this paper is a mosaic system which is a formal (rewriting) system of symbol strings. We conjecture that this formal system fully captures in an axiomatic way all of the properties of tame knot theory.
We analyze the connections between the mathematical theory of knots and quantum physics by addressing a number of algorithmic questions related to both knots and braid groups. Knots can be distinguished by means of “knot invariants,” among which the Jones polynomial plays a prominent role, since it can be associated with observables in topological quantum field theory. Although the problem of computing the Jones polynomial is intractable in the framework of classical complexity theory, it has been recently recognized that a quantum computer is capable of approximating it in an efficient way. The quantum algorithms discussed here represent a breakthrough for quantum computation, since approximating the Jones polynomial is actually a “universal problem,” namely, the hardest problem that a quantum computer can efficiently handle.
In my research, we developed a method to distinguish knots. A knot is a mathematical depiction of the everyday knot that occurs in ropes and cords. The distinguishing of knots is a computationally hard problem, which is equivalent with the untangling of knots. Often, knots are distinguished by a so called knot invariant. Such an invariant is a label that can be attributed to any knot, such that the label is identical for two identical knots. The theory of knots is closely related to quantum computing and lattices of atoms. The distinguishing of knots is a problem that can be solved in an exponential number of computations, in the number of crossings of a knot. Our invariants can be computed in polynomial time. This means that the number of computations is a power of the number of crossings of a knot. Another advantage of our method is that for the knots that have been calculated, the invariant was able to distinguish as the most effective methods combined. In fact, by removing unnecessary information from the conventional knot invariants, we obtained an invariant that can be computed much faster, and is as effective as the usual invariants.
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=EPRER = EPRER=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.