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arXiv:2112.08398 · SciPost Physics

Knots and entanglement

Jin-Long Huang, John McGreevy, Bowen Shi

Published Jun 2, 2023• 8 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

We extend the entanglement bootstrap program to (3+1)-dimensions. We study knotted excitations of (3+1)-dimensional liquid topological orders and exotic fusion processes of loops. As in previous work in (2+1)-dimensions [Ann. Phys. 418, 168164 (2020), Phys. Rev. B 103, 115150 (2021)], we define a variety of superselection sectors and fusion spaces from two axioms on the ground state entanglement entropy. In particular, we identify fusion spaces associated with knots. We generalize the information convex set to a new class of regions called immersed regions, promoting various theorems to this new context. Examples from solvable models are provided; for instance, a concrete calculation of knot multiplicity shows that the knot complement of a trefoil knot can store quantum information. We define spiral maps that allow us to understand consistency relations for torus knots as well as spiral fusions of fluxes.

DOI
10.21468/scipostphys.14.6.141

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We extend the entanglement bootstrap program to (3+1)-dimensions. We study knotted excitations of (3+1)-dimensional liquid topological orders and exotic fusion processes of loops. As in previous work in (2+1)-dimensions [Ann. Phys. 418, 168164 (2020), Phys. Rev. B 103, 115150 (2021)], we define a variety of superselection sectors and fusion spaces from two axioms on the ground state entanglement entropy. In particular, we identify fusion spaces associated with knots. We generalize the information convex set to a new class of regions called immersed regions, promoting various theorems to this new context. Examples from solvable models are provided; for instance, a concrete calculation of knot multiplicity shows that the knot complement of a trefoil knot can store quantum information. We define spiral maps that allow us to understand consistency relations for torus knots as well as spiral fusions of fluxes.
A bstract The topological Rényi and entanglement entropies depend on the bipartition of the manifold and the choice of the ground states. However, these entanglement quantities remain invariant under a coordinate transformation when the bipartition also undergoes the identical transformation. In topological quantum field theories (TQFTs), these coordinate transformations reduce to representations of the mapping class group on the manifold of the Hilbert space. We employ this invariant property of the Rényi and entanglement entropies under coordinate transformations for TQFTs in (2 + 1) dimensions on a torus with various bipartitions. By utilizing the replica trick and the surgery method to compute the topological Rényi and entanglement entropies, the invariant property results in Verlinde-like formulas. Furthermore, for the bipartition with interfaces as two non-intersecting torus knots, an SL(2 , ℤ) transformation can untwist the torus knots, leading to a simple bipartition with an effective ground state. This invariant property allows us to demonstrate that the topological entanglement entropy has a lower bound −2 ln D , where D is the total quantum dimensions of the system.
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.
Recently we conjectured that a certain set of universal topological quantities characterize topological order in any dimension. Those quantities can be extracted from the universal overlap of the ground-state wave functions. For systems with gapped boundaries, these quantities are representations of the mapping class group MCG(M)\mathtt{MCG}(\mathcal{M})MCG(M) of the space manifold M\mathcal{M}M on which the systems live. We will here consider simple examples in three dimensions and give physical interpretation of these quantities, related to the fusion algebra and statistics of particles and string excitations. In particular, we will consider dimensional reduction from 3+1D to 2+1D, and show how the induced 2+1D topological data contain information on the fusion and the braiding of non-Abelian string excitations in 3D. These universal quantities generalize the well-known modular SSS and TTT matrices to any dimension.
We develop a theory of gapped domain wall between topologically ordered systems in two spatial dimensions. We find a new type of superselection sector---referred to as the parton sector---that subdivides the known superselection sectors localized on gapped domain walls. Moreover, we introduce and study the properties of composite superselection sectors that are made out of the parton sectors. We explain a systematic method to define these sectors, their fusion spaces, and their fusion rules, by deriving nontrivial identities relating their quantum dimensions and fusion multiplicities. We propose a set of axioms regarding the ground-state entanglement entropy of systems that can host gapped domain walls, generalizing the bulk axioms proposed in B. Shi, K. Kato, and I. H. Kim, Ann. Phys. 418, 168164 (2020). Similar to our analysis in the bulk, we derive our main results by examining the self-consistency relations of an object called information convex set. As an application, we define an analog of topological entanglement entropy for gapped domain walls and derive its exact expression.
Excitations in (3+1)-dimensional [(3+1)D] topologically ordered phases have very rich structures. (3+1)D topological phases support both pointlike and stringlike excitations, and in particular the loop (closed string) excitations may admit knotted and linked structures. In this work, we ask the following question: How do different types of topological excitations contribute to the entanglement entropy or, alternatively, can we use the entanglement entropy to detect the structure of excitations, and further obtain the information of the underlying topological order? We are mainly interested in (3+1)D topological order that can be realized in Dijkgraaf-Witten (DW) gauge theories, which are labeled by a finite group GGG and its group 4-cocycle $\ensuremath{\omega}\ensuremath{\in}{\mathcal{H}}^{4}[G;\text{U}(1)]$ up to group automorphisms. We find that each topological excitation contributes a universal constant lndiln{d}_{i}lndi​ to the entanglement entropy, where di{d}_{i}di​ is the quantum dimension that depends on both the structure of the excitation and the data $(G,\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\omega})$. The entanglement entropy of the excitations of the linked/unlinked topology can capture different information of the DW theory $(G,\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\omega})$. In particular, the entanglement entropy introduced by Hopf-link loop excitations can distinguish certain group 4-cocycles $\ensuremath{\omega}$ from the others.
We consider Chern-Simons theory for gauge group G at level k on 3-manifolds M n with boundary consisting of n topologically linked tori. The Euclidean path integral on M n defines a quantum state on the boundary, in the n-fold tensor product of the torus Hilbert space. We focus on the case where M n is the link-complement of some n-component link inside the three-sphere S 3. The entanglement entropies of the resulting states define framing-independent link invariants which are sensitive to the topology of the chosen link. For the Abelian theory at level k (G = U(1) k ) we give a general formula for the entanglement entropy associated to an arbitrary (m|n − m) partition of a generic n-component link into sub-links. The formula involves the number of solutions to certain Diophantine equations with coefficients related to the Gauss linking numbers (mod k) between the two sublinks. This formula connects simple concepts in quantum information theory, knot theory, and number theory, and shows that entanglement entropy between sublinks vanishes if and only if they have zero Gauss linking (mod k). For G = SU(2) k , we study various two and three component links. We show that the 2-component Hopf link is maximally entangled, and hence analogous to a Bell pair, and that the Whitehead link, which has zero Gauss linking, nevertheless has entanglement entropy. Finally, we show that the Borromean rings have a “W-like” entanglement structure (i.e., tracing out one torus does not lead to a separable state), and give examples of other 3-component links which have “GHZ-like” entanglement (i.e., tracing out one torus does lead to a separable state).