On symmetrization of 6j-symbols and Levin-Wen Hamiltonian

Abstract

It is known that every ribbon category with unimodality allows symmetrized $6j$-symbols with full tetrahedral symmetries while a spherical category does not in general. We give an explicit counterexample for this, namely the category $\mathcal{E}$. We define the mirror conjugate symmetry of $6j$-symbols instead and show that $6j$-symbols of any unitary spherical category can be normalized to have this property. As an application, we discuss an exactly soluble model on a honeycomb lattice. We prove that the Levin-Wen Hamiltonian is exactly soluble and hermitian on a unitary spherical category.