Quantum geometry and quantum algorithms

Motivated by algorithmic problems arising in quantum field theories whose dynamical variables are geometric in nature, we provide a quantum algorithm that efficiently approximates the colored Jones polynomial. The construction is based on the complete solution of Chern-Simons topological quantum field theory and its connection to Wess-Zumino-Witten conformal field theory. The colored Jones polynomial is expressed as the expectation value of the evolution of the q-deformed spin-network quantum automaton. A quantum circuit is constructed capable of simulating the automaton and hence of computing such expectation value. The latter is efficiently approximated using a standard sampling procedure in quantum computation.Comment: Submitted to J. Phys. A: Math-Gen, for the special issue ``The Quantum Universe'' in honor of G. C. Ghirard

Quantum Knitting

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.Comment: 29 pages, 5 figures; to appear in Laser Journa

Spin networks, quantum automata and link invariants

The spin network simulator model represents a bridge between (generalized) circuit schemes for standard quantum computation and approaches based on notions from Topological Quantum Field Theories (TQFT). More precisely, when working with purely discrete unitary gates, the simulator is naturally modelled as families of quantum automata which in turn represent discrete versions of topological quantum computation models. Such a quantum combinatorial scheme, which essentially encodes SU(2) Racah--Wigner algebra and its braided counterpart, is particularly suitable to address problems in topology and group theory and we discuss here a finite states--quantum automaton able to accept the language of braid group in view of applications to the problem of estimating link polynomials in Chern--Simons field theory.Comment: LateX,19 pages; to appear in the Proc. of "Constrained Dynamics and Quantum Gravity (QG05), Cala Gonone (Italy) September 12-16 200

Quantum computation of universal link invariants

In the framework of the spin-network simulator based on the SU q(2) tensor algebra, we implement families of finite state quantum automata capable of accepting the language generated by the braid group, and whose transition amplitudes are coloured Jones polynomials. The automaton calculation of the polynomial of a link L on n strands at any fixed root of unity q is bounded from above by a linear function of the number of crossings of the link, on the one hand, and polynomially bounded in terms of the braid index n, on the other