Reflection Positivity and Levin-Wen Models

Abstract

The reflection positivity property has played a central role in both mathematics and physics, as well as providing a crucial link between the two subjects. In a previous paper we gave a new geometric approach to understanding reflection positivity in terms of pictures. Here we give a transparent algebraic formulation of our pictorial approach. We use insights from this translation to establish the reflection positivity property for the fashionable Levin-Wen models with respect both to vacuum and to bulk excitations. We believe these methods will be useful for understanding a variety of other problems.