Minimal index and braided subfactors (Q1207128)

The author derives the multiplicativity of the minimal index of subfactors and applies this result to the analysis of certain braid group representations that describe symmetries of endomorphisms of factors, with sufficiently small index, abstracting the structure that emerges from the superselection sector analysis in quantum field theory. For these endomorphisms, the possible index values has several gaps besides the Jones restriction, for example, the index does not lie in the interval \((4,3\sqrt{2})\). As consequence, subfactors arising in low- dimensional QFT cannot be arbitrary.