A Tutorial on Knots and Quantum Mechanics

Dmitry Melnikov

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arXiv · 2503.08846

A Tutorial on Knots and Quantum Mechanics

Dmitry Melnikov

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Abstract

These notes review a description of quantum mechanics in terms of the topology of spaces, basing on the axioms of Topological Quantum Field Theory and path integral formalism. In this description quantum states and operators are encoded by the topology of spaces that are used as modules to build the quantum mechanical model, while expectation values and probabilities are given by topological invariants of spaces, knots and links. The notes focus on the specific way the topology encodes quantum mechanical features, or, equivalently, on how these features can be controlled through the topology. A topological classification of entanglement is discussed, as well as properties of entanglement entropy and basic quantum protocols. The primary aim is to build a less conventional diagrammatic intuition about quantum mechanics, expanding the paradigm of ``Quantum Picturalism".

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Dmitry Melnikov. 2025-03-11. A Tutorial on Knots and Quantum Mechanics. https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.08846

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