Topological quantum computation is hyperbolic

DOI10.1007/S00220-023-04713-WMaRDI QIDQ6109364zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Eric Samperton

Publication date 28 July 2023

Published in Communications in Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.00857

zbMATH Keywords

hyperbolic knotquantum invarianttopological quantum computationtopological quantum field theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Finite-type and quantum invariants, topological quantum field theories (TQFT) (57K16) Computational difficulty of problems (lower bounds, completeness, difficulty of approximation, etc.) (68Q17)

Abstract: We show that a topological quantum computer based on the evaluation of a Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev TQFT invariant of knots can always be arranged so that the knot diagrams with which one computes are diagrams of hyperbolic knots. The diagrams can even be arranged to have additional nice properties, such as being alternating with minimal crossing number. Moreover, the reduction is polynomially uniform in the self-braiding exponent of the coloring object. Various complexity-theoretic hardness results regarding the calculation of quantum invariants of knots follow as corollaries. In particular, we argue that the hyperbolic geometry of knots is unlikely to be useful for topological quantum computation.

Review text

Quantum invariants of knots are a class of invariants that can be defined using quantum groups. The first and certainly most famous such invariant is the Jones polynomial. When the quantum parameter is set to be a root of unity, these invariants can produce a Topological Quantum Field Theory (TQFT) using a standard procedure outlined by Witten, Reshetikhin, and Turaev. These invariants are generally calculated using knot diagrams and the calculations are normally extremely hard, even at roots of unity. The author shows that there exists a polynomial time algorithm that converts a knot diagram to a hyperbolic one with almost identical quantum invariant. The key to his argument is Vafa's theorem: In any (2+1)-dimensional Witten-Reshetikin-Turaev TQFT determined by a modular fusion category, the square of the braiding of any two objects is a finite order linear map. Vafa's theorem allows the insertion into the knot diagram of a sequence of consecutive full twists without changing the quantum invariant. This leads the author to conclude that the hyperbolic geometry of knots can not speed-up the calculation/estimation of quantum invariants. The author also shows that it is still as hard to calculate/estimate quantum invariants from other special classes of knot diagrams such as, hyperbolic knots with minimal crossing numbers.

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Cited in

(4)

• Simulation of topological field theories by quantum computers
• Towards a complexity-theoretic dichotomy for TQFT invariants
• Hardness of computation of quantum invariants on 3-manifolds with restricted topology
• Hardness of computation of quantum invariants on 3-manifolds with restricted topology

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