Topological quantum computation

From MaRDI portal



Abstract: The theory of quantum computation can be constructed from the abstract study of anyonic systems. In mathematical terms, these are unitary topological modular functors. They underlie the Jones polynomial and arise in Witten-Chern-Simons theory. The braiding and fusion of anyonic excitations in quantum Hall electron liquids and 2D-magnets are modeled by modular functors, opening a new possibility for the realization of quantum computers. The chief advantage of anyonic computation would be physical error correction: An error rate scaling like e−al, where l is a length scale, and alpha is some positive constant. In contrast, the qpresumptive" qubit-model of quantum computation, which repairs errors combinatorically, requires a fantastically low initial error rate (about 10−4) before computation can be stabilized.


This is a survey paper describing quantum computation based on unitary topological modular functors. The chief advantage of topological computation is physical error correction, a consequence of topological stability. In contrast, other quantum computation models, which repair errors combinatorially, require an extremely low initial error rate. The theoretical model considered by the authors is obtained by restricting to planar surfaces the Witten-Chern-Simons modular functor with gauge grop \(\text{SU}(2)\) at fifth roots of unity. Logical qubits are punctured disks with punctures colored by irreducible representations, and the gates (unitary transformations) are the operators of the Hecke algebra representation discovered by Jones. The authors conjecture that such a model could by implemented physically using the braiding and fusion of anyonic excitation in quantum Hall electron liquids with \(\nu={5\over 2}\).




Cited in
(only showing first 100 items - show all)








This page was built for publication: Topological quantum computation

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q4780388)