Two paradigms for topological quantum computation

Abstract

We present two paradigms relating algebraic, topological and quantum computational statistics for the topological model for quantum computation. In particular we suggest correspondences between the computational power of topological quantum computers, computational complexity of link invariants and images of braid group representations. While at least parts of these paradigms are well-known to experts, we provide supporting evidence for them in terms of recent results. We give a fairly comprehensive list of known examples and formulate two conjectures that would further support the paradigms.