A new algorithm for recognizing the unknot

The topological underpinnings are presented for a new algorithm which answers the question: `Is a given knot the unknot?' The algorithm uses the braid foliation technology of Bennequin and of Birman and Menasco. The approach is to consider the knot as a closed braid, and to use the fact that a knot is unknotted if and only if it is the boundary of a disc with a combinatorial foliation. The main problems which are solved in this paper are: how to systematically enumerate combinatorial braid foliations of a disc; how to verify whether a combinatorial foliation can be realized by an embedded disc; how to find a word in the the braid group whose conjugacy class represents the boundary of the embedded disc; how to check whether the given knot is isotopic to one of the enumerated examples; and finally, how to know when we can stop checking and be sure that our example is not the unknot.Comment: 46 pages. Published copy, also available at http://www.maths.warwick.ac.uk/gt/GTVol2/paper9.abs.htm

Alexander representation of tangles

A tangle is an oriented 1-submanifold of the cylinder whose endpoints lie on the two disks in the boundary of the cylinder. Using an algebraic tool developed by Lescop, we extend the Burau representation of braids to a functor from the category of oriented tangles to the category of Z[t,t^{-1}]-modules. For (1,1)-tangles (i.e., tangles with one endpoint on each disk) this invariant coincides with the Alexander polynomial of the link obtained by taking the closure of the tangle. We use the notion of plat position of a tangle to give a constructive proof of invariance in this case.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Smilansky's model of irreversible quantum graphs, II: the point spectrum

In the model suggested by Smilansky one studies an operator describing the interaction between a quantum graph and a system of K one-dimensional oscillators attached at different points of the graph. This paper is a continuation of our investigation of the case K>1. For the sake of simplicity we consider K=2, but our argument applies to the general situation. In this second paper we apply the variational approach to the study of the point spectrum.Comment: 18 page

Penn State Get Away Special

Three proposed spaceborne experiments to be conducted by equipment in the Get Away Special (GAS) payload are described. The specific contribution and effect of convection in heat transfer is discussed. Investigations of the surface tension of two liquids in space environment and the problem of liquid slosh in spin stabilized satellites are reviewed

Quasi-classical versus non-classical spectral asymptotics for magnetic Schroedinger operators with decreasing electric potentials

We consider the Schroedinger operator H on L^2(R^2) or L^2(R^3) with constant magnetic field and electric potential V which typically decays at infinity exponentially fast or has a compact support. We investigate the asymptotic behaviour of the discrete spectrum of H near the boundary points of its essential spectrum. If the decay of V is Gaussian or faster, this behaviour is non-classical in the sense that it is not described by the quasi-classical formulas known for the case where V admits a power-like decay.Comment: Corrected versio

Cosmic Strings Stabilized by Fermion Fluctuations

We provide a thorough exposition of recent results on the quantum stabilization of cosmic strings. Stabilization occurs through the coupling to a heavy fermion doublet in a reduced version of the standard model. The study combines the vacuum polarization energy of fermion zero-point fluctuations and the binding energy of occupied energy levels, which are of the same order in a semi-classical expansion. Populating these bound states assigns a charge to the string. Strings carrying fermion charge become stable if the Higgs and gauge fields are coupled to a fermion that is less than twice as heavy as the top quark. The vacuum remains stable in the model, because neutral strings are not energetically favored. These findings suggest that extraordinarily large fermion masses or unrealistic couplings are not required to bind a cosmic string in the standard model.Comment: Based on talk by HW at QFEXT 11 (Benasque, Spain), 15p, uses ws-ijmpcs.cls (incl

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

Dual generators of the fundamental group and the moduli space of flat connections

We define the dual of a set of generators of the fundamental group of an oriented two-surface $S_{g,n}$ of genus $g$ with $n$ punctures and the associated surface $S_{g,n}\setminus D$ with a disc $D$ removed. This dual is another set of generators related to the original generators via an involution and has the properties of a dual graph. In particular, it provides an algebraic prescription for determining the intersection points of a curve representing a general element of the fundamental group $\pi_1(S_{g,n}\setminus D)$ with the representatives of the generators and the order in which these intersection points occur on the generators.We apply this dual to the moduli space of flat connections on $S_{g,n}$ and show that when expressed in terms both, the holonomies along a set of generators and their duals, the Poisson structure on the moduli space takes a particularly simple form. Using this description of the Poisson structure, we derive explicit expressions for the Poisson brackets of general Wilson loop observables associated to closed, embedded curves on the surface and determine the associated flows on phase space. We demonstrate that the observables constructed from the pairing in the Chern-Simons action generate of infinitesimal Dehn twists and show that the mapping class group acts by Poisson isomorphisms.Comment: 54 pages, 13 .eps figure

Topologically protected quantum gates for computation with non-Abelian anyons in the Pfaffian quantum Hall state

We extend the topological quantum computation scheme using the Pfaffian quantum Hall state, which has been recently proposed by Das Sarma et al., in a way that might potentially allow for the topologically protected construction of a universal set of quantum gates. We construct, for the first time, a topologically protected Controlled-NOT gate which is entirely based on quasihole braidings of Pfaffian qubits. All single-qubit gates, except for the pi/8 gate, are also explicitly implemented by quasihole braidings. Instead of the pi/8 gate we try to construct a topologically protected Toffoli gate, in terms of the Controlled-phase gate and CNOT or by a braid-group based Controlled-Controlled-Z precursor. We also give a topologically protected realization of the Bravyi-Kitaev two-qubit gate g_3.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX; version 3: introduced section names, new reference added; new comment added about the embedding of the one- and two- qubit gates into a three-qubit syste