Solutions to generalized Yang-Baxter equations via ribbon fusion categories

Abstract

Inspired by quantum information theory, we look for representations of the braid groups B_n on V^(⊗(n+m−2)) for some fixed vector space V such that each braid generator σ_i, i = 1, ..., n−1, acts on m consecutive tensor factors from i through i +m−1. The braid relation for m = 2 is essentially the Yang-Baxter equation, and the cases for m > 2 are called generalized Yang-Baxter equations. We observe that certain objects in ribbon fusion categories naturally give rise to such representations for the case m = 3. Examples are given from the Ising theory (or the closely related SU(2)_2), SO(N)_2 for N odd, and SU(3)_3. The solution from the Jones-Kauffman theory at a 6th root of unity, which is closely related to SO(3)_2 or SU(2)_4, is explicitly described in the end.

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