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# Comparing Quantum Entanglement and Topological Entanglement

### Abstract

This paper discusses relationships between topological entanglement and quantum entanglement. Specifically, we propose that it is more fundamental to view topological entanglements such as braids as entanglement operators and to associate to them unitary operators that are capable of creating quantum entanglement.

## 1 Introduction

This paper discusses relationships between topological entanglemenet and quantum entanglement. The present paper is an expanded version of . Specifically, we propose that it is more fundamental to view topological entanglements such as braids as entanglement operators and to associate to them unitary operators that perform quantum entanglement. Then one can compare the way the unitary operator corresponding to an elementary braid has (or has not) the capacity to entangle quantum states. Along with this, one can examine the capacity of the same operator to detect linking. The detection of linking involves working with closed braids or with link diagrams. In both cases, the algorithms for computing link invariants are very interesting to examine in the light of quantum computing. These algorithms can usually be decomposed into one part that is a straight composition of unitary operators, and hence can be seen as a sequence of quantum computer instructions, and another part that can be seen either as preparation/detection, or as a quantum network with cycles in the underlying graph.

The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 discusses the basic analogy between topological entanglement and quantum entanglement. Section 3 proposes the viewpoint of braiding operators and gives a specific example of a unitary braiding operator, showing that it does entangle quantum states. Section 3 ends with a list of problems. Section 4 discusses the link invariants associated with the braiding operator $`R`$ introduced in the previous section. Section 5 is a discussion of the structure of entanglement in relation to measurement. Section 6 is an introduction to the virtual braid group, an extension of the classical braid group by the symmetric group. We contend that unitary representations of the virtual braid group provide a good context and language for quantum computing. Section 7 is a discussion of ideas and concepts that have arisen in the course of this research.

Acknowledgement. Most of this effort was sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Air Force Research Laboratory, Air Force Materiel Command, USAF, under agreement F30602-01-2-05022. Some of this effort was also sponsored by the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for Government purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotations thereon. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force Research Laboratory, or the U.S. Government. (Copyright 2002.) It gives the first author great pleasure to thank Fernando Souza for interesting conversations in the course of preparing this paper.

## 2 The Temptation of Tangled States

It is quite tempting to make an analogy between topological entanglement in the form of linked loops in three dimensional space and the entanglement of quantum states. A topological entanglement is a non-local structural feature of a topological system. A quantum entanglement is a non-local structural feature of a quantum system. Take the case of the Hopf link of linking number one. See Figure 1. In this Figure we show a simple link of two components and state its inequivalence to the disjoint union of two unlinked loops. The analogy that one wishes to draw is with a state of the form

$$\psi =(|01>|10>)/\sqrt{2}$$

which is quantum entangled. That is, this state is not of the form $`\psi _1\psi _2HH`$ where $`H`$ is a complex vector space of dimension two. Cutting a component of the link removes its topological entangement. Observing the state removes its quantum entanglement in this case.

Figure 1 - The Hopf Link

An example of Aravind  makes the possibility of such a connection even more tantalizing. Aravind compares the Borommean Rings (See Figure 2) and the $`GHZ`$ state

$$|\psi >=(|\beta _1>|\beta _2>|\beta _3>|\alpha _1>|\alpha _2>|\alpha _3>)/\sqrt{2}.$$

Figure 2 - Borommean Rings

The Borommean Rings are a three component link with the property that the triplet of components is indeed topologically linked, but the removal of any single component leaves a pair of unlinked rings. Thus, the Borommean Rings are of independent intellectual interest as an example of a tripartite relation that is not expressed in terms of binary relations. The $`GHZ`$ state can be viewed as an entangled superposition of three particles with (say) all their spins in the $`z`$ direction. If we measure one particle of the three particle quantum system, then the state becomes disentangled (That is, it becomes a tensor product). Thus the $`GHZ`$ state appears to be a quantum analog to the Borommean Rings!

However, Aravind points out that this analogy is basis dependent, for if one changes basis, rewriting to

$$|\psi >=(|\beta _{1x}>/\sqrt{2})(|\beta _2>|\beta _3>|\alpha _2>|\alpha _3>)/\sqrt{2}$$

$$+(|\alpha _{1x}>/\sqrt{2})(|\beta _2>|\beta _3>+|\alpha _2>|\alpha _3>)/\sqrt{2},$$

where $`|\beta _{1x}>`$ and $`|\alpha _{1x}>`$ denote the spin-up and spin-down states of particle $`1`$ in the $`x`$ direction, then one sees that a measurement of the spin of particle $`1`$ in the $`x`$ direction will yield an entangled state of the other two particles. Thus, in this basis, the state $`|\psi >`$ behaves like a triplet of loops such that each pair of loops is linked! Seeing the state as analogous to a specific link depends upon the choice of basis. From a physical standpoint, seeing the state as analogous to a link depends upon the choice of an observable.

These examples show that the analogy between topological linking and quantum entanglement is surely complex. One might expect a collection of links to exemplify the entanglement properties of a single quantum state. It is attractive to consider the question: What patterns of linking are inherent in a given quantum state? This is essentially a problem in linear algebra and should be investigated further. We will not pursue it in this paper.

On top of this, there is quite a bit of ingenuity required to produce links with given properties. For example, in Figure 3 we illustrate a Brunnian Link of four components. This link has the same property as the Borommean Rings but for four components rather than three. Remove any component and the link falls apart. The obvious generalization of th $`GHZ`$ state with this property just involves adding one more tensor product in the two-term formula. This raises a question about the relationship of toplogical complexity and algebraic complexity of the corresponding quantum state. The other difficulties with this analogy are that topological properties of linked loops are not related to quantum mechanics in any clear way. Nevertheless, it is clear that this is an analogy worth pursuing.

Figure 3 - A Brunnian Link

## 3 Entanglement Operators

Braids and the Artin braid group form a first instance in topology where a space (or topological configuration) is also seen as an operator on spaces and configurations. It is a shift that transmutes the elements of a topological category to morphisms in an associated category. While we shall concentrate on braids as an exemplar of this shift, it is worth noting that such a shift is the basis of quantum topology and topological quantum field theory, where spaces are viewed (through appropriate functors) as morphisms in a category analogous to a category of Feynman diagrams. This pivot from spaces to morphisms and back is the fundamental concept behind topological quantum field theory.

Braids are patterns of entangled strings. A braid has the form of a collection of strings extending from one set of points to another, with a constant number of points in each cross section. Braids start in one row of points and end in another. As a result, one can multiply two braids to form a third braid by attaching the end points of the first braid to the initial points of the second braid. Up to topological equivalence, this multiplication gives rise to a group, the Artin Braid Group $`B_n`$ on $`n`$ strands.

Each braid is, in itself, a pattern of entanglement. Each braid is an operator that operates on other patterns of entanglement (braids) to produce new entanglements (braids again).

We wish to explore the analogy between topological entanglement and quantum entanglement. From the point of view of braids this means the association of a unitary operator with a braid that repspects the topological structure of the braid and allows exploration of the entanglement properties of the operator. In other words, we propose to study the analogy between topological entanglement and quantum entanglement by looking at unitary representations of the Artin Braid Group. It is not the purpose of this paper to give an exhaustive account of such representations. Rather, we shall concentrate on one particularly simple representation and analyze the relationships between topological and quantum entanglement that are implicit in this representation. The main point for the exploration of the analogy is that, from the point of view of a braid group representation, each braid is seen as an operator rather than a state. See Figure 4.

Figure 4 - A Braiding Operator

Figure 5 - The Yang-Baxter Equation

Figure 6 - Inverses

We will consider representations of the braid group constructed in the following manner. To an elementary two strand braid there is associated an operator

$$R:VVVV.$$

Here $`V`$ is a complex vector space, and for our purposes, $`V`$ will be two dimensional so that $`V`$ can hold a single qubit of information. One should think of the two input and two output lines from the braid as representing this map of tensor products. Thus the left endpoints of $`R`$ as shown in Figures 4, 5 and 6 represent the tensor product $`VV`$ that forms the domain of $`R`$ and the right endpoints of the diagram for $`R`$ represent $`VV`$ as the range of the maping. In the diagrams with three lines shown in Figure 5, we have mappings from $`VVV`$ to itself. The identity shown in Figure 5 is called the Yang-Baxter Equation, and it reads algebraically as follows, where $`I`$ denotes the identity transformation on $`V.`$

$$(RI)(IR)(RI)=(IR)(RI)(IR).$$

This equation expresses the fundamental topological relation in the Artin Braid group, and is the main requirement for producing a representation of the braid group by this method. We also need an inverse to $`R`$ and this will be associated with the reversed elementary braid on two strands as shown in Figure 6. One then defines a representation $`\tau `$ of the Artin Braid Group to automorphisms of $`V^n`$ by the equation

$$\tau (\sigma _k)=I\mathrm{}IRI\mathrm{}I,$$

where the $`R`$ occupies the $`k`$ and $`k+1`$ places in this tensor product. If $`R`$ satisfies the Yang-Baxter equation and is invertible, then this formula describes a representation of the braid group. If $`R`$ is unitary, then this construction provides a unitary representation of the braid group.

Here is the specific $`R`$ matrix that we shall examine. The point of this case study is that $`R`$, being unitary, can be considered as a quantum gate and since $`R`$ is the key ingredient in a unitary representation of the braid group, it can be considered as a operator that performs topological entanglement. We shall see that it can also perform quantum entanglement in its action on quantum states.

$$R=\left[\begin{array}{cccc}a& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& d& 0\\ 0& c& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& b\end{array}\right].$$

Here $`a,b,c,d`$ can be any scalars on the unit circle in the complex plane. Then $`R`$ is a unitary matrix and it is a solution to the Yang-Baxter Equation. It is an interesting and illuminating exercise to verify that $`R`$ is a solution to the Yang-Baxter Equation. We will omit this verification here, but urge the reader to perform it. In fact, the following more general construction gives a large class of unitary $`R`$ matrices: Let $`M=(M_{ij})`$ denote an $`n\times n`$ matrix with entries in the unit circle in the complex plane. Let $`R`$ be defined by the equation

$$R_{kl}^{ij}=\delta _l^i\delta _k^jM_{ij}.$$

It is easy to see that $`R`$ is a unitary solution to the Yang-Baxter equation. Our explicit example is the special case of $`R`$ where the matrix $`M`$ is $`2\times 2.`$ It turns out, just as we shall show here for the special case, $`R`$ detects no more than linking numbers for braids, knots and links. This is interesting, but it would be even more interesting to see other unitary $`R`$ matrices that have subtler topological properties. The reader may enjoy comparing this situation with the unitary representation of the Artin Braid Group discussed in .

One can use that representation to calculate the Jones polynomial for three-strand braids. There is still a problem about designing a quantum computer to find the Jones polynomial, but this braid group representation does encode subtle topology. At the same time the representation in  cannot entangle quantum states. Thus the question of the precise relationship between topological entanglement and quantum entanglement certainly awaits the arrival of more examples of unitary representations of the braid group. We are indebted to David Meyer for asking sharp questions in this domain .

Now let $`P`$ be the swap permutation matrix

$$P=\left[\begin{array}{cccc}1& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 1& 0\\ 0& 1& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& 1\end{array}\right].$$

and let $`\tau =RP`$ so that

$$\tau =\left[\begin{array}{cccc}a& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& c& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& d& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& b\end{array}\right].$$

Then from the point of view of quantum gates, we have the phase gate $`\tau `$ and the swap gate $`P`$ with $`\tau =RP`$. From the point of view of braiding and algebra, we have that $`R`$ is a solution to the braided version of the Yang-Baxter equation, $`\tau `$ is a solution to the algebraists version of the Yang-Baxter equation, and $`P`$ is to be regarded as an algebraic permutation or as a representation of a virtual or flat crossing. We discuss the virtual braid group  in section 5, but for here suffice it to say that it is an extension of the classical braid group by the symmetric group and so contains braiding generators and also generators of order two. Now the point is that by looking at unitary representations of the virtual braid group, we can (as with the matrices above) pick up both phase and swap gates, and hence the basic ingredients for quantum computation. This means that the virtual braid group provides a useful topological language for quantum computing. This deserves further exploration.

The matrix $`R`$ can also be used to make an invariant of knots and links that is sensitive to linking numbers. We will discuss this point in section 4.

But now, consider the action of the unitary transformation $`R`$ on quantum states. We have

1. $`R|00>=a|00>`$
2. $`R|01>=c|10>`$
3. $`R|10>=d|01>`$
4. $`R|11>=b|11>`$

Here is an elementary proof that the operator $`R`$ can entangle quantum states. Note how this comes about through its being a composition of a phase and a swap gate. This decomposition is available in the virtual braid group.

Lemma. If $`R`$ is chosen so that $`abcd`$, then the state $`R(\psi \psi )`$, with $`\psi =|0>+|1>`$, is entangled.

Proof. By definition,

$$\varphi =R(\psi \psi )=R((|0>+|1>)(|0>+|1>))$$

$$=a|00>+c|10>+d|01>+b|11>.$$

If this state $`\varphi `$ is unentangled, then there are constants $`X`$, $`Y`$, $`X^{}`$, $`Y^{}`$ such that

$$\varphi =(X|0>+Y|1>)(X^{}|0>+Y^{}|1>).$$

This implies that

1. $`a=XX^{}`$
2. $`c=X^{}Y`$
3. $`d=XY^{}`$
4. $`b=YY^{}`$

It follows from these equations that $`ab=cd.`$ Thus, when $`abcd`$ we can conclude that the state $`\varphi `$ is entangled as a quantum state. //

Figure 7 - Braiding Operator Entangling a State

Remark. Note that if $`\alpha =a|0>+b|1>`$ and $`\beta =c|0>+d|1>`$ then $`\alpha \beta =ac|00>+ad|01>+bc|10>+bd|11>.`$ Thus a state $`\gamma =X|00>+Y|01>+Z|10>+W|11>`$ is entangled if $`XWYZ.`$

### 3.1 Questions

This phenomenon leads to more questions than we have answers.

1. How does one classify quantum entanglements in terms of braids (and corresponding braiding operators) that can produce them.
2. Can all quantum entangled states be lifted to braidings?
3. How do protocols for quantum computing look from this braided point of view?
4. What is the relationship between the analogy between quantum states and entangled loops when viewed through the lens of the braiding operators?
5. Does the association of unitary braiding operators shed light on quantum computing algorithms for knot invariants and statistical mechanics models? Here one can think of the computation of a knot invariant as separated into a braiding computation that is indeed a quantum computation, plus an evaluation related to the preparation and detection of a state(See ).
6. How does one classify all unitary solutions to the Yang-Baxter equation.

## 4 Link Invariants from R

The unitary $`R`$ matrix that we have considered in this paper gives rise to a non-trivial invariant of links. In this section we shall discuss the invariant associated with the specialization of $`R`$ with $`c=d`$ so that

$$R=\left[\begin{array}{cccc}a& 0& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& c& 0\\ 0& c& 0& 0\\ 0& 0& 0& b\end{array}\right].$$

Later we will specialize further so that $`a=b.`$ We omit the details here, and just give the formula for this invariant in the form of a state summation. The invariant has the form

$$Z_K=a^{w(K)}(\sqrt{a/b})^{rot(K)}<K>,$$

where $`w(K)`$ is the sum of the crossing signs of the oriented link $`K`$ and $`rot(K)`$ is the rotation number (or Whitney degree) of the planar diagram for $`K`$. See Figure 8. The bracket $`<K>`$ is the unnormalized state sum for the invariant. This state sum is defined through the equations shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8 - Formulas for the State Summation

In this Figure, the first crossing is positive, the second negative. The first two diagrammatic equations correspond to terms in the matrices $`R`$ and $`R^1`$ respectively. Note that the glyphs in these equations are labeled with $`0`$ or $`1.`$ The first two terms correspond to the action of $`R`$ on $`|00>`$ and on $`|11>`$ respectively. The third term refers to the fact that $`R`$ acts on $`|01>`$ and $`|10>`$ in the same way (by multiplying by $`c`$). However, these equations are interpreted for the state summation as instructions for forming local states on the link diagram. A global state on the link diagram is a choice of replacement for each crossing in the diagram so that it is either replaced by parallel arcs (as in the first two terms of each equation) or by crossed arcs (as in the third term of each equation). The local assignments of $`0`$ and $`1`$ on the arcs must fit together compatibly in a global state. Thus in a global state one can think of the $`0`$ and $`1`$ as qubits ‘circulating” around simple closed curves in the plane. Each such state of circulation is measured in terms of the qubit type and the sense of rotation. These are the evaluations of cycles indicated below the two main equations for the state sum. Each cycle is assigned either $`Q`$ or $`1/Q`$ where $`Q=\sqrt{b/a}.`$ The state sum is the summation of evaluations of all of the possible states of qubit circulation where each state is evaluated by the product of weights $`a`$,$`b`$,$`c`$ (and their inverses) coming from the expansion equations, multiplied by the porduct of the evaluations $`Q`$ or $`1/Q`$ of the simple closed curves in the state. This completes a summary of the algorithm.

There are many ways to construe a state summation such as this. One can arrange the knot or link with respect to a given direction in the plane, and see the calculation as a vacuum-vacuum amplitude in a toy quantum field theory . One can look directly at it as a generalized statistical mechanics state summation as we described it above. One can write the link as a closed braid and regard a major part of the calculation as a composition of unitary braiding operators. In this picture, a good piece of the algorithm can be construed as quantum. We believe that algorithms of this type, inherent in the study of so-called quantum link invariants, should be investigated more deeply from the point of view of quantum computing. In particular, the point of view of the algorithm as a sum over states of circulating qubits can be formalized, and will be the subject of another paper.

An example of a computation of this invariant is in order. In Figure 9 we show the admissible states for a Hopf link (a simple link of two circles) where both circles have the same rotation sense in the plane. We then see that if $`H`$ denotes the Hopf link, then $`<H>=a^2Q^2+b^2Q^2+2c^2`$ whence

$$Z_H=Q^2<H>=a^2+b^2Q^4+2c^2Q^2.$$

From this it is easy to see that the invariant $`Z`$ detects the linkedness of the Hopf link. In fact $`Z`$ cannot detect linkedness of links with linking number equal to zero. For example, $`Z`$ cannot detect the linkedness of the Whitehead link shown in Figure 10.

Figure 9 - States for the Hopf Link $`H`$

Figure 10 - The Whitehead Link

### 4.1 A Further Specialization of $`Z_K`$

If we let $`a=b`$ in the definition of $`Z_K`$, then the state summation becomes particularly simple with $`Q=1.`$ It is then easy to see that for a two component link $`Z_K`$ is given by the formula

$$Z_K=2(1+(c^2/a^2)^{lk(K)})$$

where $`lk(K)`$ denotes the linking number of the two components of $`K.`$ Thus we see that for this specialization of the $`R`$ matrix the operator $`R`$ entangles quantum states exactly when it can detect linking numbers in the topological context.

Here is another description of the state sum: Instead of smoothing or flattening the crossings of the diagram, label each component of the diagram with either $`0`$ or $`1`$. Take vertex weights of $`a`$ or $`c`$ (in this special case, and the corresponding matrix entries in the general case) for each local labelling of a positive crossing as shown in Figure 11. For a negative crossing the corresponding labels are $`1/a`$ and $`1/c`$ (which are the complex conjugates of $`a`$ and $`c`$ repsectively, when $`a`$ and $`c`$ are unit complex numbers). Let each state (labelling of the diagram by zeroes and ones) contribute the product of its vertex weights. Let $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(K)`$ denote the sum over all the states of the products of the vertex weights. Then one can verify that $`Z(K)=a^{w(K)}\mathrm{\Sigma }(K)`$ where $`w(K)`$ is the sum of the crossing signs of the diagram $`K.`$

Figure 11 - Positive Crossing Weights

Figure 12 - Zero-One States for the Hopf Link

For example, view Figure 12. Here we show the zero-one states for the Hopf link $`H`$. The $`00`$ and $`11`$ states each contributes $`a^2,`$ while the $`01`$ and $`10`$ states contribute $`c^2.`$ Hence $`\mathrm{\Sigma }(H)=2(a^2+c^2)`$ and $`a^{w(H)}\mathrm{\Sigma }(H)=2(1+(c^2/a^2)^1)=2(1+(c^2/a^2)^{lk(H)}),`$ as expected.

The calculation of the invariant in this form is actually an analysis of quantum networks with cycles in the underlying graph. In this form of calculation we are concerned with those states of the network that correspond to labelings by qubits that are compatible with the entire network structure. A precise definition of this concept will be given in a sequel to this paper. Here one considers only those quantum states that are compatible with the interconnectedness of the network as a whole.

The example of the Hopf link shows how subtle properties of topological entanglement are detected through the use of the operator $`R`$ in circularly interconnected quantum networks. It remains to do a deeper analysis that can really begin to disentangle the roles of quantum entanglement and circularity in such calculations.

## 5 A Remark about EPR

It is remarkable that the simple algebraic situation of an element in a tensor product that is not itself a a tensor product of elements of the factors corresponds to subtle nonlocality in physics. It helps to place this algebraic structure in the context of a gedanken experiment to see where the physics comes in. Consider

$$S=|0>|1>+|1>|0>.$$

In an EPR thought experiment, we think of two “parts” of this state that are separated in space. We want a notation for these parts and suggest the following:

$$L=\{|0>\}|1>+\{|1>\}|0>,$$

$$R=|0>\{|1>\}+|1>\{|0>\}.$$

In the left state $`L`$, an observer can only observe the left hand factor. In the right state $`R`$, an observer can only observe the right hand factor. These “states” $`L`$ and $`R`$ together comprise the EPR state $`S,`$ but they are accessible individually just as are the two photons in the usual thought experiement. One can transport $`L`$ and $`R`$ individually and we shall write

$$S=LR$$

to denote that they are the “parts” (but not tensor factors) of $`S.`$

The curious thing about this formalism is that it includes a little bit of macroscopic physics implicitly, and so it makes it a bit more apparent what EPR were concerned about. After all, lots of things that we can do to $`L`$ or $`R`$ do not affect $`S.`$ For example, transporting $`L`$ from one place to another, as in the original experiment where the photons separate. On the other hand, if Alice has $`L`$ and Bob has $`R`$ and Alice performs a local unitary transformation on “her” tensor factor, this applies to both $`L`$ and $`R`$ since the transformation is actually being applied to the state $`S.`$ This is also a “spooky action at a distance” whose consequence does not appear until a measurement is made.

## 6 Virtual Braids

This section expands the remarks about how the inclusion of a swap operator in the braid group leads to a significant generalization of that structure to the virtual braid group.

The virtual braid group is an extension of the classical braid group by the symmetric group. If $`V_n`$ denotes the $`n`$–strand virtual braid group, then $`V_n`$ is generated by braid generators $`\sigma _1`$, …, $`\sigma _{n1}`$ and virtual generators $`c_1`$,…, $`c_n`$ where each virtual generator $`c_i`$ has the form of the braid generator $`\sigma _i`$ with the crossing replaced by a virtual crossing. Among themselves, the braid generators satisfy the usual braiding relations. Among themselves, the virtual generators are a presentation for the symmetric group $`S_n.`$ The relations that relate virtual generators and braiding geneerators are as follows:

$$\sigma _i^\pm c_{i+1}c_i=c_{i+1}c_i\sigma _{i+1}^\pm ,$$

$$c_ic_{i+1}\sigma _i^\pm =\sigma _{i+1}^\pm c_ic_{i+1},$$

$$c_i\sigma _{i+1}^\pm c_i=c_{i+1}\sigma _i^\pm c_{i+1}.$$

It is easy to see from this description of the virtual braid groups that all the braiding generators can be expressed in terms of the first braiding generator $`\sigma _1`$ (and its inverse) and the virtual generators. One can also see that Alexander’s Theorem generalizes to virtuals: Every virtual knot is equivalent to a virtual braid . In  a Markov Theorem is proven for virtual braids.

Figure 12 - Braid Generators and Virtual Braid Generators

Figure 13 - Relations in the Virtual Braid Group

From the point of view of quantum computing, it is natural to add the virtual braiding operators to the Artin Braid Group. Each virtual braiding operator can be interpreted as a swap gate. With the virtual operators in place, we can compose them with the $`R`$ matrices to obtain phase gates and other apparatus as described in Section 3. We then have the virtual braid group as a natural topologically based group structure that can be used as an underlying language for building patterns of quantum computation.

## 7 Discussion

We are now in a position to state the main problem posed by this paper. We have been exploring the analogy between topological entanglement and quantum entanglement. It has been suggested that there may be a direct connection between these two phenomena. But on closer examination, it appears that rather than a direct connection, there is a series of analogous features that are best explored by going back and forth across the boundary between topology and quantum computing. In particular, we have seen that the unitary operator $`R`$ can indeed produce entangled quantum states from unentangled quantum states. The operator $`R`$ is the basic ingredient for forming a representation of the Artin Braid Group. As such, it is intimately connected with topological entanglement. In fact, the operator $`R`$ is also the basic ingredient in constructing the link invariant $`Z_K`$ that we have studied in section 4. The construction of this link invariant is motivated by quantum statistical mechanics and its structure bears further investigation from the point of view of quantum computing. The theme that emerges is powerfully related to the circularity of the links. It is through mutual circularity that the topological linking occurs. And it is through this circularity and the measurement of circulating states of qubits that one computes the state summation model. A deep relation of quantum states and topological states will be seen through the study of the quantum states of circularly interconnected networks structurally related to three-dimensional space. These networks are both topological and quantum mechanical, and a common structure will emerge. This is the project for further papers in our series.

In the meantime, the language of the braid group and virtual braid group provides an arena for representing quantum operators that can be interpreted topologically. This framework provides a means for topology and quantum computing to converse with one another.

The papers  and  provide background to the considerations of the present paper. In particular, they provide a general framework for studying quantum entanglement that may be useful in investigating the role of infinitesimal braiding operators and other aspects of the representation theory of the Artin braid group.

The reader may wish to compare the points of view in this paper with the paper . There the author considers the possibility of anyonic computing and follows out the possible consequences in terms of representations of the Artin Braid Group. We are in substantial agreement with his point of view and we contend that braiding is fundamental to quantum computation whether or not it is based in anyonic physics.


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# The Dynamics, Structure and History of Galaxies: Workshop Summary

## 1. Introduction

As far as anyone knew, we were gathered at the resplendent Dunk Island on the Barrier Reef to celebrate Ken Freeman’s 60th birthday. But what we got was a well presented cross-section of key topics in Galactic and extragalactic astronomy. Many of the speakers were former students of Ken’s and the quality of the talks reflected this fact. If there was an overarching theme to the meeting, it reflected Ken’s wish to understand “the chain of events that occurred during the formation of the Galaxy”, to quote from his Annual Reviews article in 1987. The four day workshop was divided into four parts: galaxy structure and dynamics, haloes and environments, HI and dark matter, galaxy formation and evolution.

## 2. Galaxy Structure and Dynamics

Van der Kruit began the meeting with a bold statement: Ken Freeman’s celebrated paper in 1970 remains the most highly cited in Astrophysical Journal of that year, and falls within the Top Ten of the most cited papers in galactic astronomy. He went on to review what we have learnt over the intervening years about galaxy disks, concluding that the central surface brightness $`\mu _o`$ given by “Freeman’s law” – $`\mu _o`$ is approximately constant for spiral disks – is really an upper limit on $`\mu _o`$. It is interesting to note that, in the original paper, Ken makes no statement that would constitute a law, although he does explore the theoretical consequences of constant $`\mu _o`$. But the “Freeman disk” continues to play an important role in observational and theoretical studies.

The remarkable fact of the existence of the Tully-Fisher relation continues to puzzle. De Blok outlined the intimate connection of the Tully-Fisher conundrum with galaxy formation and evolution, a theme picked up by Bosma in his review of new HI data of late-type spirals. Bosma retraced the history of the dark matter problem and emphasized the importance of Ken’s 1970 paper in stressing the mass discrepancy in galaxy dynamics, long before the spate of ‘dark halo’ theory papers starting in 1973. Throughout the 1970s, the observational case for dark matter became more compelling largely due to HI studies of spirals by Bosma, Roberts and others. From new observations of late-type spirals, Bosma finds the HI rotation curves are much better fit with an isothermal halo, rather than the NFW profile from CDM simulations.

Kormendy demonstrated the now-famous relation between the black hole mass and the depth of the potential well as measured by the velocity dispersion. There is a clear link between bulges and black holes which was probably established in the early universe during the major epoch of bulge growth. M33, which has no bulge, appears to have no black hole to an upper mass limit of 1000 solar masses. Sadler showed evidence for a radio-power/black hole mass relation which may allow us to track the evolution of black hole mass with redshift, something that is presently difficult to do for bulges.

Planetary nebulae are proving to be excellent probes of the outermost halo. Ford showed the kinematics of many hundreds of planetary nebulae out to 6 scale lengths in Cen A. The bisymmetric kinematic signature is strongly suggestive of a tumbling or triaxial potential. An obvious application would be to look for planetary nebulae in the faint stellar streams which are seen to encircle a number of nearby galaxies, including both M31 and the Galaxy.

Bureau, on behalf of the SAURON team, presented integral field results for a large sample of elliptical, lenticular and spiral galaxies divided between clusters and the field. Fully one third of these show evidence of nuclear sub-structure. Some show evidence for triaxility, including nuclear bars as judged from Athanassoula’s bar simulations. The group emphasizes caution in the analysis and derivation of black hole masses from longslit measurements.

Kalnajs entertained us with on-line simulations of Freeman bars and showed that they come in three flavours; slow, fast and pointy. Block presented a new physical classification of galaxies based on near-IR imaging. The method uses Elmegreen’s proposal to estimate bar torque from the projected mass distribution. The scheme is based on the Fourier h2 component of the IR light and the degree of arm winding. Block finds that “once you penetrate the mask,” many multi-arm spirals are found to be grand design 2-arm spirals in the near IR. There appears to be a major overlap in bar torque between normal and barred spirals. This resonated with Gerhard who presented the crucial facts for a bar in the Galaxy. The predicted gas flow patterns reveal four arms – “four arms good, two arms bad” – which appear to agree with the tangent points for the spiral arms defined by HII regions. The COBE/DIRBE maps appear to require at least two spiral arms, but beyond that, not much can be deduced.

## 3. Haloes and environments

One of the most active research areas of astrophysics, especially so in Australia, concerns the chemical enrichment of the Galactic halo. From Norris’ review, it was clear that we have barely begun to tap the information available from starlight. One of the most interesting results is the dramatic fall off in the number of stars with \[Fe/H\] $`<`$ –4 with only a few currently known. A simple one-zone model of galactic chemical enrichment predicts that the number of stars should decline by a factor of ten for every decrease of 1 dex in \[Fe/H\]. Why this is not the case below \[Fe/H\] $`<`$ –4 appears to be saying something important about the nature of the first stars in the universe.

Some of the heavy r- and s-process elements in metal-poor stars display an increasingly large scatter as \[Fe/H\] decreases. This remarkable trend is thought to reflect incomplete mixing of the ISM in the early Galaxy. In his talk, Bland-Hawthorn asked to what extent we could unravel disk formation from unique chemical signatures back to the last major epoch of dissipation.

Dwarf galaxies continue to present puzzles. Some like Sculptor and Fornax have low M/L values, while others like Sextans, Draco, Carina and Ursa Minor have huge overdensities of dark matter. It seems likely that some of the observed dwarfs have undergone dynamical stripping by the Galaxy. But Da Costa showed that these objects apparently cannot have contributed a large fraction of the halo stars: while the iron peak element abundances are much like field stars, the \[$`\alpha `$/Fe\] ratio is substantially lower.

In the words of Mateo, the Local Group is a dangerous place for a dwarf. The tidal radius of a dwarf with mass $`m_7`$ (in units of 107 M) at a distance $`r_{100}`$ (in units of 100 kpc) from the centre of the Galaxy is roughly $`r_dr_{100}\sqrt[3]{m_7}`$. The velocity dispersion of the dwarf is $`\sigma _d6\sqrt[3]{m_7}/\sqrt{r_{100}}`$ (in units of km s-1). We can approximate the timescale for dynamically stripping a dwarf galaxy as $`\tau _d2\sqrt{3}(r_d/\sigma _d)`$. A dwarf galaxy that ventures within 100 kpc of the two great rajahs of the Local Group can be stripped in just a few gigayears. In the coming decade, it is clear that detailed heavy element abundances (beyond those shown by Da Costa) will provide a clearer picture as to what fraction of the halo stars formed in situ rather than in satellite galaxies.

Future astrometric missions will no doubt find stellar streams associated with open clusters, globular clusters, and events unseen. Maybe all of the halo, much of the disk and some fraction of the bulge is made up of streams and sub-structure. Morrison spoke of the Spaghetti Survey which should be sensitive to such events out to a radius of 100 kpc. Clumping in the halo is also the main science goal of the YSTAR project, as presented by Byun.

De Zeeuw showed that the Gaia mission at the end of the decade will be able to measure the parallax and proper motions of 1.3 billion stars down to the level of micro-arcseconds. At these levels, the gravity field of Jupiter is detectable over the entire sky! Andrew Murray, author of an authorative text on vectorial astrometry (“which dares not to venture below milli-arcsecond levels”), once remarked that it would take a very bright individual a lifetime to get to the bottom of all relativistic phenomena at micro-arcsecond levels. This of course provides a rich data set in its own right.

King presented his analysis, in collaboration with Jay Andersen, of Hubble Space Telescope data on M4 which allows for a near-perfect separation of the cluster main sequence from the field stars from the proper motions. The dispersion in the main sequence becomes almost immeasurable after the line-of-sight objects are rejected. This is reminiscent of recent work on open clusters which used the Hipparcos database to weed out objects not associated with the clusters. Quillen finds that the dispersion in \[Fe/H\] is immeasurable once line-of-sight objects are rejected.

## 4. HI and Dark matter

While the “successes” of CDM on linear scales are trumpeted on a routine basis, this cannot be said for CDM predictions of the non-linear domain. This problem is particularly acute in regions of large density contrast. CDM simulations overpredict the cuspiness of galaxies, the dark matter fraction within the Solar Circle, the random motions in the Local Supercluster, and the number satellites on the scale of the Local Group. Several speakers (e.g. Fall) noted that relaxing the cuspiness of CDM profiles makes everyone’s life easier. But until this issue is resolved, interest in modified gravity laws will continue, even in the absence of an inertial framework. Sellwood showed the extent to which the MOND prescription can be made to explain a diverse array of data, particularly the fact that dark haloes appear to mimic the luminous components, e.g. squashed stellar systems have squashed dark haloes.

Sadler, Carignan and Putman presented some of the major results to derive from the southern sky HIPASS survey. It seems that the Ly-alpha absorption systems arise primarily in the low mass HI ellipticals are detected in HI in the HIPASS survey, and some of these structures stretch to vast distances. Gibson showed that most high-velocity clouds are likely to fall within 100 kpc of the Galaxy, although Putman finds that some fraction of these might extend further still. This, however, assumes that some compact clouds are physically associated with dark matter haloes. It is therefore noteworthy that Carignan claims evidence of HI associated with several dwarf spheroidals. In the Galaxy, Allen presented evidence for the association of HI with molecular gas which is being dissociated by the soft UV radiation field. This link can be seen over spatial scales which cover many orders of magnitude (1 pc to 10 kpc). Calzetti discussed how detailed observations of local galaxies can yield insight into the multiple processes associated with the evolution of starbursts.

The detailed connection of baryons to dark matter continues to elude. We should prepare ourselves for the possibility that there is more to the dark matter universe than we might suppose. CDM appears to predict that the dark matter universe is largely uninteresting. But the galaxies we know and love are the light cusps within the dark matter potential, much as cD galaxies are to galaxy clusters. Dark matter properties may well set up the visible universe to the extent that local dark matter properties correlate with Hubble type and luminosity.

## 5. Galaxy formation and evolution

Fall showed that the salient features of the Fall & Efstathiou model of disk formation survive within the CDM hierarchy. But, as Weil et al. (1998, MNRAS, 300, 773) point out, this does require that most of the gas in small systems stays hot long enough to settle to the disk when most of the accretion activity has passed. Fall and Silk both emphasized the importance of viscosity and its relation to star-formation timescales. In the Lin & Pringle picture, this viscosity is maintained by the disk-halo interaction and spiral arms.

Jerjen demonstrated that the Surface Brightness Fluctuation method can be used to determine distances to dwarf elliptical galaxies. This then opens the way for mapping in a simple and effective way the detailed distribution of galaxies within $``$10 Mpc. This may allow us to understand how large scale structures within this volume, such as the Supergalactic Plane, arise. Student numero uno Illingworth showed that the universe at z $``$ 1 looks much like the universe today. He emphasized that since most of the baryons reside in ellipticals and bulges today, these largely define galaxy evolution.

## 6. Conclusions

We are coming into a new era of Galactic investigation where it is now possible to identify fossil evidence of ancient events. In the Galactic halo, we might label these the Helmi event, the $`\omega `$ Cen event, the Sgr dwarf event and the “thick disk” event (i.e. the event which gave rise to the thick disk). Some of these halo objects may even be related.

In fact, there are likely to be many signatures of the galaxy formation process, not only substructure in the outer halo (Helmi, Morrison). Some of these, like the existence of truncation radii (van der Kruit) and the distribution of specific angular momentum between the Galactic components (Fall), may have been set down long ago. In all likelihood, we have yet to recognize many important signals, i.e. fossil signatures, of past events.

One such signature may be the existence of superthin disk galaxies, examples of which were shown in several talks. It is interesting that superthin disk galaxies exist at all. These may be telling us that, for the most part, disk formation is highly quiescent. It simply putters along over 10 Gyr or so. It is tempting to suggest that the Madau plot, which purports to monitor the star formation history over cosmic time, is largely dominated by star formation in merger events. In this picture, all disk thickening is due to dynamical events like accretion.

To come back to Ken’s original wish, it is becoming increasingly clear that “to understand the chain of events that occurred during the formation of the Galaxy”, the astronomical community must embrace the wealth of near-field information with the same relish that it embraces the far field universe. There are many compelling reasons to support this statement. In particular, two key events in the early universe are the epoch when dark matter haloes first became established (roughly 14 Gyr ago), and the epoch when disks first established themselves (10$``$12 Gyr ago). The world-model parameters ($`\mathrm{\Omega }_m=0.3`$, $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{\Lambda }=0.7`$) place both of these events in the redshift window which defines contemporary observational cosmology ($`z16`$) at optical/IR wavelengths.

Many of the luminous objects we observe at high redshift are chemically and dynamically evolved as shown by solar abundance levels (the dynamical timescales are short in the cores of galaxies). To understand galaxy evolution, we would like information from the outer parts of high-redshift galaxies, which is exceedingly hard to obtain. This information can be extracted from near-field studies although now the systems are viewed at a much later stage in their evolution. In any event, near-field and far-field data are entirely complementary, and a successful theory of galaxy formation will need to be firmly anchored to both extremes.


text:
# Adhesion of membranes with competing specific and generic interactions

## 1 Introduction

The adhesion of biomimetic membranes and vesicles is governed by various generic and specific interactions . The simplest systems are provided by lipid bilayers which contain only one or a few lipid components and which have a laterally uniform composition. The generic interactions between one such membrane and another surface (or between two such membranes) can be of enthalpic or entropic origin.

The enthalpic contribution arises from the intermolecular forces such as hydration, van der Waals, and electrostatic forces. This contribution, called the direct membrane interaction, can be measured if the membrane is essentially flat or planar. Experimentally, a flat state can be prepared by immobilizing the membrane on a solid substrate. Theoretically, this state corresponds to the limit of a large membrane rigidity.

In aqueous solution, bilayer membranes are often quite flexible and then exhibit thermally–excited undulations which act to renormalize their direct interaction. If the direct interaction is purely repulsive, the undulations lead to a free energy contribution which can be interpreted as an entropic or fluctuation–induced force as proposed in Ref. . If the direct interaction contains an attractive potential well, the renormalized interaction leads to an unbinding transition as predicted in Ref. .

Biomembranes contain a large number of different lipids and anchored macromolecules. The attractive forces between two membranes are usually mediated by receptors or adhesion molecules which are anchored in the membranes . These specific interactions govern the highly selective binding of cells which is essential for many biological processes such as immune response or tissue development . From a theoretical point of view, the adhesive behavior of these rather complex biomembranes can be modelled, to a certain extent, by two–component membranes containing ‘generic’ lipids and anchored stickers .

The interplay of generic and specific interactions has also been investigated experimentally. Adhesion–induced lateral phase separation into domains with small and large membrane separations has been found to occur in several biomimetic systems. The formation of blisters has been observed in membranes containing cationic lipids in contact with a negatively charged surface , and between membranes containing both negatively and positively charged lipids . The coexistence of tight and weak adhesion states has been found for membranes with biotinylated lipids bound to another biotinylated surface via streptavidin , membranes with homophilic csA–receptors from the slime mold Dictyostelium discoideum , and membranes containing specific ligands of integrin molecules adsorbed on a substrate . Attractive membrane-mediated interactions between bound csA–receptors of adhering vesicles have been inferred from membrane tension jumps induced by the micropipet aspiration technique . In addition to the receptors, the membranes studied in  also contain repulsive lipopolymers to prevent non–specific adhesion. These observations indicate the existence of possible physical mechanisms for the aggregation of receptors in biological membranes which has been found during cell adhesion and results in the formation of focal contacts .

In this article, we present a detailed study of one possible mechanism for adhesion–induced phase separation concerning membranes with generic repulsive and specific attractive interactions. For these membranes, tracing over the sticker degrees of freedom in the partition function leads to an effective trans–membrane interaction which exhibits a potential barrier. Such trans–membrane interactions have been previously studied in Refs. . The phase separation results from the line tension between bound and unbound membrane regions due to this potential barrier. Membrane fluctuations reduce the barrier and, therefore, decrease the tendency for phase separation. The mechanism is thus clearly distinct from entropic, fluctuation–induced mechanisms for adhesion–induced phase separation as discussed in Refs. . Similar mechanisms for phase separation due to an effective potential barrier have also been studied recently in Refs. .

The mechanism studied here is rather general as will be demonstrated by considering two different cases. In the first case, we assume that the generic trans–membrane interaction is repulsive for short separations and attractive for large separations. The generic trans–interaction is then approximated by a harmonic potential centered at the potential minimum at $`l=l_o`$. The specific trans–interaction is expanded up to linear order in $`ll_o`$, and can be thought to arise from restoring forces of extensible sticker molecules which are irreversibly bound to the membrane and the substrate. In the absence of membrane shape fluctuations, the lateral phase behavior can be determined exactly. Using Monte Carlo simulations, we furthermore show that the membrane fluctuations reduce the potential barrier and the tendency for lateral phase separation.

In the second case, we consider a generic trans–membrane repulsion which is modeled as a square–barrier potential. In addition, the trans–interaction of the stickers is modeled as a square–well potential . The stickers are bound for small separations from the substrate, and unbound otherwise. The square–well potential is a simple model for short–ranged lock–and–key interactions of ligands and receptors. After partial summation over the sticker degrees of freedom, we find again an effective potential barrier if the generic repulsion is longer ranged than the specific attraction of the stickers. As in the first case, this barrier leads to lateral phase separation, and is effectively reduced by membrane fluctuations.

## 2 The model

A systematic description of a biomimetic membrane with stickers in contact with a substrate or a second membrane has to include a field $`l(x,y)`$ for the local separation of the membrane(s) and a concentration field $`n(x,y)`$ of the stickers above a position $`(x,y)`$ on a reference plane. In the following, we apply a theoretical framework which has been introduced in Ref.  and extended in Refs. . Within this framework, the membrane is divided into small patches with a linear size $`a`$ which corresponds to the smallest possible wavelength for bending deformations. According to computer simulations for molecular membranes, this size is about 6 nm for lipid bilayers with a thickness of about 4 nm . For a membrane which is on average parallel to a planar substrate, this leads to an effective discretization of the reference plane into a two–dimensional square lattice with lattice parameter $`a`$. The sticker positions are described by occupation numbers $`n_i=0`$ or 1 where $`n_i=1`$ indicates the presence of a sticker at lattice site $`i`$, and the local separation is given by $`l_i0`$ , see Fig. 1. An alternative continuous Ginzburg–Landau theory for the sticker concentration field was used in Ref. .

In terms of these variables, the grand canonical Hamiltonian has the general form

$$\{l,n\}=_{el}\{l\}+\underset{i}{}\left[V_g(l_i)+n_i\left(V_s(l_i)\mu \right)\right]$$
(1)
where the elastic term

$$_{el}\{l\}=\underset{i}{}\frac{\kappa }{2a^2}(\mathrm{\Delta }_dl_i)^2$$
(2)
represents the discretized bending energy of the membrane with bending rigidity $`\kappa `$, and the discretized Laplacian $`\mathrm{\Delta }_d`$ is given by

$$\mathrm{\Delta }_dl_i=\mathrm{\Delta }_dl(x,y)=l(x+a,y)+l(xa,y)+l(x,y+a)+l(x,ya)4l(x,y)$$
(3)
The term $`(\mathrm{\Delta }_dl_i)^2`$ corresponds to the leading order expression for the mean curvature squared of a membrane with vanishing spontaneous curvature . The second term of the Hamiltonian (1) contains (i) the generic interaction potential $`V_g(l)`$ between the membrane and substrate and (ii) the specific adhesion potential $`V_s(l)`$ of the stickers which only contributes at lattice sites with $`n_i=1`$, i.e. at lattice sites where stickers are present. The relative chemical potential of the stickers is denoted by $`\mu `$. The same description holds for a multicomponent membrane in contact with a second, homogeneous membrane. In the latter case, the effective bending rigidity $`\kappa `$ is given by $`\kappa _1\kappa _2/(\kappa _1+\kappa _2)`$ where $`\kappa _1`$ and $`\kappa _2`$ denote the bending rigidities of the two membranes .

Note that $`V_g(l)`$ and $`V_s(l)`$ are the interaction energies per membrane patch where each patch has area $`a^2`$. Thus, the interaction energies per unit area are given by $`V_g(l)/a^2`$ and $`V_s(l)/a^2`$, respectively. This differs from the convention in Ref.  where the interaction potentials were defined as energies per unit area.

In the following, we neglect direct interactions between pairs of stickers which can be described by quadratic terms in the concentration field $`n`$ . The Hamiltonian (1) is then linear in $`n`$, and the sticker degrees of freedom in the partition function

$$𝒵=\left[\underset{i}{}_0^{\mathrm{}}dl_i\right]\left[\underset{i}{}\underset{n_i=0,1}{}\right]\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\{l,n\}}{T}\right]$$
(4)
can be partially summed or traced over exactly, leading to

$$𝒵=\left[\underset{i}{}_0^{\mathrm{}}dl_i\right]\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{_{el}\{l\}+_iV_{ef}(l_i)}{T}\right]$$
(5)
with the effective potential

$$V_{ef}(l)=V_g(l)T\mathrm{ln}\left(1+\mathrm{exp}\left[\frac{\mu V_s(l)}{T}\right]\right)$$
(6)
where $`T`$ denotes the temperature in energy units (i.e., the Boltzmann constant $`k_B`$ is absorbed into the symbol $`T`$). The partial summation over the sticker degrees of freedom $`\{n\}`$ thus leads to an equivalent problem of a laterally homogeneous membrane with the effective potential (6).

## 3 Linear sticker potential

In this section, we consider a generic potential $`V_g`$ between the membrane and the substrate which has a relatively deep minimum at a certain separation $`l_o`$ from the substrate. Such a potential arises, e.g., for electrically neutral surfaces interacting via strong van der Waals forces. Using a Taylor expansion around the minimum, we approximate this generic potential by the harmonic potential

$$V_g(l)=\frac{v_2}{2a^2}(ll_o)^2$$
(7)
where $`v_2=a^2(d^2V_g/dl^2)|_{l_o}`$.

In addition to this generic potential, we consider extensible sticker molecules which are irreversibly bound to both the substrate and the membrane, and which have an unstretched extension small compared to $`l_o`$. We will further assume that the corresponding sticker potential $`V_s(l)`$ has an essentially constant gradient for those values of $`l`$ for which we can use the harmonic approximation (7) for the generic potential. In such a situation, we may truncate the expansion of the sticker potential in powers of $`ll_o`$ and use

$$V_s(l)=V_s(l_o)+\frac{\alpha (ll_o)}{a}$$
(8)
with $`\alpha aV_s(l)/l|_{l_o}>0`$.

In order to simplify the notation and to reduce the number of parameters, it is convenient to introduce the rescaled variables

$$h\sqrt{\frac{v_2}{T}}\frac{ll_o}{a}$$
(9)
The Hamiltonian (1) with the generic potential (7) and the specific potential (8) can then be written as

$$\frac{\{h,n\}}{T}=\underset{i}{}\left[\frac{\kappa }{2v_2}(\mathrm{\Delta }_dh_i)^2+\frac{1}{2}h_i^2+n_i\left(\stackrel{~}{\alpha }h_i\stackrel{~}{\mu }\right)\right]$$
(10)
in terms of the discrete lattice variables $`h_i`$, $`n_i`$, and the dimensionless parameters

$$\stackrel{~}{\alpha }=\frac{\alpha }{\sqrt{v_2T}}\text{and}\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\frac{\mu V_s(l_o)}{T},$$
(11)
and the effective potential (6) has the form

$$\frac{V_{ef}(h)}{T}=\frac{1}{2}h^2\mathrm{ln}\left(1+e^{\stackrel{~}{\mu }\stackrel{~}{\alpha }h}\right)$$
(12)
Direct inspection of these equations shows that the system considered here depends on three dimensionless parameters: (i) the reduced coupling constant $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }`$ of the specific potential, (ii) the reduced (and shifted) chemical potential $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }`$, and (iii) the ratio $`\kappa /v_2`$ of the bending rigidity $`\kappa `$ and the strength $`v_2`$ of the generic harmonic potential (7).

### 3.1 Limit of rigid membranes

For large values of the ratio $`\kappa /v_2`$, thermally excited shape fluctuations of the membrane can be neglected. The free energy $`F=(T/A)\mathrm{ln}𝒵`$ per area $`A`$ is then given by $`V_{ef}/a^2`$. The phase behavior is determined by the minimization of the effective potential (12):

$$\frac{V_{ef}}{h}=0$$
(13)
First-order phase transitions are found when different minima of $`V_{ef}`$ coexist.

For the effective potential (12), the discussion of the phase behavior is simplified if this potential is expressed in terms of the shifted separation field

$$zh+\stackrel{~}{\alpha }/2.$$
(14)
For the special line in the $`(\stackrel{~}{\mu },\stackrel{~}{\alpha })`$ parameter space as given by

$$\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}\stackrel{~}{\alpha }^2/2,$$
(15)
the effective potential (12) has the form

$$\frac{V_{ef}(z)}{T}|_{\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}}=\frac{z^2}{2}+\frac{\stackrel{~}{\alpha }^2}{8}\mathrm{ln}\left[2\mathrm{cosh}(\stackrel{~}{\alpha }z/2)\right]$$
(16)
which is symmetric under the inversion $`zz`$.

As one varies the parameter $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }`$ while keeping $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}(\stackrel{~}{\alpha })`$, the effective potential given by (16) undergoes a continuous bifurcation at the critical value $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }=\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=2`$, see Fig. 2. For $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }<\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }>\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$, this potential has a single minimum at $`z=0`$ and two degenerate minima at finite values of $`z`$, respectively. The critical value $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=2`$ of the bifurcation point can be directly inferred from the second derivative of (16) as given by

$$\frac{1}{T}\frac{d^2V_{ef}(z)}{dz^2}|_{\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu _{}}}=1\frac{\stackrel{~}{\alpha }^2}{4\mathrm{cosh}^2(\stackrel{~}{\alpha }z/2)}.$$
(17)
For $`z=0`$, this expression is equal to $`1\stackrel{~}{\alpha }^2/4`$ which vanishes for $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }=\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=2`$. In the limit of rigid membranes as considered here, one can ignore the effect of membrane fluctuations and the bifurcation point of the effective potential is identical with the critical point of the system which thus lies at $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=2`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }_c=\stackrel{~}{\alpha _c}^2/2=2`$.

Thus, for $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}(\stackrel{~}{\alpha })`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }>2`$, the effective potential (12) is a symmetric double–well potential with two degenerate minima. As soon as the chemical potential $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }`$ deviates from its coexistence value $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}`$, this symmetry is broken and the effective potential exhibits a unique global minimum. Therefore, the system undergoes a discontinuous transition as one changes the chemical potential from $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}ϵ`$ to $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}+ϵ`$ for $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }>2`$ where $`ϵ`$ denotes a small chemical potential difference.

The positions, say $`z_o`$, of the extrema of the effective potential are determined by $`dV_{ef}(z)/dz=0`$. Along the coexistence line given by $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}=\stackrel{~}{\alpha }^2/2`$, this leads to the transcendental equation

$$z_o=\frac{\stackrel{~}{\alpha }}{2}\mathrm{tanh}\left(\frac{\stackrel{~}{\alpha }z_o}{2}\right).$$
(18)
This equation has the trivial solution $`z_o=0`$ for all values of $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }`$ which corresponds to a minimum and maximum for $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }<\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=2`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }>\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=2`$, respectively. For $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }>\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=2`$, equation (18) has two additional solutions corresponding to the two degenerate minima of the effective potential $`V_{ef}`$, see Fig. 2.

For rigid membranes with large $`\kappa /v_2`$, the sticker concentration $`Xn_i/a^2`$ is given by

$$X=\frac{F}{\mu }=\frac{1}{a^2}\frac{V_{ef}}{\mu }=\frac{1}{a^2}\frac{e^{\stackrel{~}{\mu }\stackrel{~}{\alpha }y_o}}{1+e^{\stackrel{~}{\mu }\stackrel{~}{\alpha }y_o}}$$
(19)
with $`y_oz_o\stackrel{~}{\alpha }/2`$ which denotes the position of the minima of the effective potential (12). Along the coexistence line with $`\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}=\stackrel{~}{\alpha }^2/2`$, this expression simplifies and becomes

$$X|_{\stackrel{~}{\mu }=\stackrel{~}{\mu }_{}}=\frac{1}{a^2}\frac{e^{\stackrel{~}{\alpha }z_o}}{1+e^{\stackrel{~}{\alpha }z_o}}.$$
(20)
Inserting the numerically determined solutions of the transcendental equation (18) into (20) leads to the concentrations of the coexisting phases which determine the phase diagram shown in Fig. 3. Inside the shaded two–phase region, a sticker–poor phase characterized by a relatively large separation $`y_o`$ of the membrane from the substrate coexists with a sticker–rich phase with a relatively small value of $`y_o`$.

### 3.2 Flexible membranes

For a fluctuating membrane in a symmetric double–well potential, first–order transitions only exist if the barrier between the two potential wells exceeds a certain critical height . For barrier heights below this critical value, the fluctuating membrane ‘tunnels’ through the barrier and there is no phase transition. Therefore, the critical point of a flexible membrane in the double–well potential (16) will be characterized by reduced coupling constants $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c(\kappa /v_2)`$ which exceed the bifurcation value $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=2`$ as obtained for rigid membranes in the limit of large $`\kappa /v_2`$.

Using Monte Carlo simulations, the critical point can be determined, for a fixed value of $`\kappa /v_2`$, from an evaluation of the moments

$$C_2=\frac{\overline{z}^2}{|\overline{z}|^2}\text{and}C_4=\frac{\overline{z}^4}{\overline{z}^2^2}$$
(21)
where

$$\overline{z}=\frac{1}{N}\underset{i=1}{\overset{N}{}}z_i$$
(22)
is the spatially averaged order parameter, and $`\mathrm{}`$ denotes averages over all membrane configurations . For $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }>\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$ and correlation lengths $`\xi `$ which are much smaller than the linear size $`L`$ of the finite membrane, the moments reach the values $`C_2=1`$ and $`C_4=1`$, whereas for $`0<\stackrel{~}{\alpha }<\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$ and $`\xi L`$, we have $`C_2=\pi /21.57`$ and $`C_4=3`$. For $`L\xi `$ on the other hand, the moments $`C_2`$ and $`C_4`$ vary only weakly with the linear size $`L`$. The critical value $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$ of the reduced coupling constant can then be estimated from the common intersection point of $`C_2`$ and $`C_4`$, respectively, as a function of $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }`$ for several values of $`L`$ , see Fig. 4.

In Fig. 5, we display the obtained values for the critical rescaled coupling constant $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$ as a function of the reduced rigidity $`\kappa /v_2`$. For large $`\kappa /v_2`$, $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$ approaches the limiting value $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c=2`$ as appropriate for rigid membranes as discussed in the previous section. As one decreases $`\kappa /v_2`$, the membrane fluctuations become more pronounced and act to increase the value of $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$. This implies that the wells of the effective potential (16) have a finite depth as one reaches the critical point of the system.

Lateral phase separation occurs for coupling constants $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }>\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$. In either of the two phases, the entire membrane is located around one of the minima in the effective potential. In the sticker–poor phase, the membrane is found in the minimum with larger separation $`y_o`$ from the substrate. This minimum is dominated by the generic membrane potential and corresponds to a state of weak adhesion. In the sticker–rich phase, the membrane fluctuates around the minimum with smaller separation $`y_o`$ corresponding to a state of tight adhesion. In contrast, there is only a single phase for coupling constants $`\stackrel{~}{\alpha }<\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$. For example, for $`2<\stackrel{~}{\alpha }<\stackrel{~}{\alpha }_c`$ the two minima of the effective potential are both populated by many different segments of the fluctuating membrane which is able to cross the potential barrier between the minima.

## 4 Square–well sticker potential

Let us now turn to stickers with a specific adhesion potential

$`V_s(l)=U\theta (l_vl)`$ $`=U`$ for $`0ll_v`$ (23)
$`=0`$ for $`l>l_v`$
where $`\theta (x)`$ is the Heaviside function: $`\theta (x)=0`$ for $`x<0`$ and $`\theta (x)=1`$ for $`x0`$. The parameter $`U`$ has the same dimension as the membrane potential $`V_s`$ and represents the interaction energy per sticker.

Stickers which interact via the square–well potential (23) can attain two different states: A bound state with binding energy $`U<0`$ if the local separation $`l`$ between the membrane and the substrate is smaller than the potential range $`l_v`$, and an unbound state otherwise. Because the fluctuating membrane cannot penetrate the substrate surface, the membrane separations $`l`$ are restricted to nonnegative values. In contrast to the linear sticker potential of the previous section with the specific potential (8), the stickers characterized by the interaction potential (23) have a fixed length and cannot be stretched. Thus, the square–well potential as given by (23) provides a simple model for short–range interactions arising, e.g., from specific ligand/receptor lock–and–key interactions or from screened electrostatic forces for charged stickers in contact with an oppositely charged substrate.

The phase behavior of multicomponent membranes containing stickers which interact via the square–well potential as given in (23) has been studied previously for the case in which one can ignore generic interactions with the substrate, The membrane was found to undergo lateral phase separation even for purely repulsive cis–interactions between the stickers if these stickers have an increased lateral size  or a larger bending rigidity than the lipid matrix . The phase separation is then driven by the shape fluctuations of the membrane.

Here, we consider the interplay of the specific sticker potential (23) with a generic repulsive trans–interaction between the membrane and the substrate. If the range of these generic interactions is smaller than the potential range $`l_v`$ of the stickers, the bound state of the stickers is more restricted, but the general entropic phase behavior described above will not be affected. However, for repulsive generic interactions with a potential range which exceeds $`l_v`$, a different scenario is possible. For simplicity, we consider here a generic potential of the form

$`V_g(l)=U_{ba}\theta (l_{ba}l)`$ $`=U_{ba}`$ for $`0ll_{ba}`$ (24)
$`=0`$ for $`l>l_{ba}`$
with a barrier height $`U_{ba}>0`$ and range $`l_{ba}>l_v`$. The effective potential (6) obtained after the summation of the sticker degrees of freedom is shown in Fig. 6 and can be written as

$`V_{ef}(l)V_o=`$ $`U_{we}`$ for $`0<l<l_v`$
$`=`$ $`U_{ba}`$ for $`l_v<l<l_{ba}`$
$`=`$ $`0`$ for $`l_{ba}<l`$ (25)
with

$$U_{we}=U_{ba}T\mathrm{ln}\frac{1+e^{(\mu U)/T}}{1+e^{\mu /T}}$$
(26)
and the constant term $`V_o=T\mathrm{ln}\left(1+e^{\mu /T}\right)`$ which depends only on the reduced chemical potential $`\mu /T`$. Since the sticker binding energy $`U`$ is negative, we have $`U_{we}<U_{ba}`$.

In the context of interacting membranes, an effective potential of the form (25) was first studied in Ref. . More recently, such a interaction potential has also been derived for membranes which contain both stickers and repellers, i.e. non–adhesive molecules which protrude from the membrane surface . The repellers have been modeled by a local square–barrier potential, the stickers by the local square–well potential (23). The generic square–barrier potential (24) thus affects the phase behavior in a similar way as repellers with a local square–barrier potential. As discussed previously, the membrane unbinds at a certain critical depth $`U_{we}^{}`$ of the attractive potential well which is given by

$$|U_{we}^{}|=ca^2T^2/\kappa l_v^2$$
(27)
where $`c`$ is a dimensionless coefficient, because the excess free energy for a membrane confined to a potential well with depth $`U_{we}`$ is $`V_{fl}(l_v)T^2/\kappa l_v^2`$, and the free energy difference between the bound and the unbound state of the membrane reads $`\mathrm{\Delta }F=|U_{we}|/a^2+cT^2/\kappa l_v^2`$. The character of the unbinding transition depends on the height of the potential barrier which induces a line tension between bound and unbound membrane segments. On small length scales, this line tension can be estimated as $`U_{ba}^{eff}L`$ with the effective barrier height $`U_{ba}^{eff}=U_{ba}+|U_{we}|cT^2/\kappa l_v^2`$ and the effective width $`L(l_{ba}l_v)\sqrt{\kappa /T}`$ of the membrane strip crossing the barrier.  Taking also into account the line entropy on larger length scales, the unbinding transition is found to be discontinuous for relatively strong barriers with

$$U_{ba}(l_{ba}l_v)^2|U_{we}^{}|l_v^2$$
(28)
and continuous for weak barriers with $`U_{ba}(l_{ba}l_v)^2|U_{we}^{}|l_v^2`$. A discontinuous transition implies the coexistence of a bound phase with a high concentration of stickers and an unbound phase with a low sticker concentration. Therefore, sufficiently strong barriers also lead to lateral phase separation and sticker aggregation.

In contrast to the entropic mechanisms mentioned above, the phase separation is caused by the line tension between bound and unbound membrane patches. This line tension is induced by the potential barrier. In order to understand the influence of membrane fluctuations, we have to take into account that the transition value $`|U_{we}^{}|`$ of the contact energy increases with the temperature $`T`$ and decreases with the bending rigidity $`\kappa `$, see (27). As implied by (28), membranes with more pronounced shape fluctuations require larger potential barriers for a discontinuous unbinding transition and lateral phase separation. As in the first case studied in the previous section, membrane fluctuations decrease the tendency of the membrane to phase separate.

## 5 Conclusions

In this article, we have studied one possible mechanism for adhesion–induced phase separation of biomimetic membranes. The mechanism is applicable to membranes which experience both specific attractive and generic repulsive trans–interactions. The specific interactions are taken to arise from sticker molecules which are embedded in the membrane, while the generic repulsion may originate, e.g., from electrostatic forces between similarly and homogeneously charged membranes. The effective trans–interaction obtained by an explicit summation of the sticker degrees of freedom in the partition function is shown to exhibit a potential barrier. This barrier induces a line tension between bound and unbound membrane regions resulting in a coexistence of a sticker–rich phase, characterized by a small separation between membrane and substrate, and a sticker–poor phase, characterized by a larger membrane–substrate separation. Thermally excited shape fluctuations of the membrane are shown to decrease the tendency for lateral phase separation by reducing the potential barrier height.

Two different cases have been considered here. In the first case, the generic trans-interaction between membrane and substrate is assumed to have a minimum at a finite membrane separation and is approximated by a harmonic potential centered at the minimum. The specific trans–interaction of the stickers is taken to depend linearly on membrane separation. This model introduced in Ref.  has been studied using a mean–field approach. The adhesion was shown to shift the critical point of the lateral phase transition. In the present article, the concentration field $`n`$ of the stickers is described as a lattice gas variable on a discretized elastic membrane. The phase behavior is determined exactly in the absence of shape fluctuations of the membrane. Fluctuations of the membrane are subsequently taken into account by Monte Carlo simulations.

In the second case, the specific sticker trans–interaction is modeled by a short–ranged square–well potential, and the generic trans–interaction between membrane and substrate is assumed to be a purely repulsive step function. This second case turns out to be closely related to biomimetic membranes which contain stickers and repellers, i.e. repulsive molecules which protrude from the membrane surface , since the effective potential has the same functional form as in eq. (25) and exhibits a potential barrier. As shown in Refs. , the membrane fluctuations can ‘tunnel’ through a relatively small barrier but are trapped by a relatively large one.

The mechanism for adhesion–induced phase separation as studied in the present article is distinct from several entropic mechanisms which have been identified in previous works . Examples of these other mechanisms include stickers with an increased lateral size , stickers with an increased rigidity, and stickers with attractive cis–interactions which are renormalized by the shape fluctuations of the membrane . These entropic mechanisms depend strongly on the rescaled potential range $`(l_v/a)\sqrt{\kappa /T}`$ of the stickers where $`l_v`$ is the range of the square–well potential (23), and $`a`$ is the size of the membrane patches. Thus, for the entropic mechanisms, the tendency for lateral phase separation increases with decreasing potential range and/or increasing temperature. This is in contrast to the mechanism described in the present work which is governed by the potential barrier contained in the effective interaction potential of the membrane. In this case, the shape fluctuations of the membrane reduce the potential barrier which implies that the tendency for lateral phase separation decreases with increasing temperature.

Experimentally, the temperature–dependence of adhesion–induced phase separation has not yet been studied. The presence of repulsive lipopolymers in the biomimetic systems investigated in  points towards a barrier–mechanism for adhesion–induced phase separation as emphasized in this article. Entropic mechanisms, on the other hand, might be relevant in the case of membranes containing oppositely charged lipids  which induce a tight membrane coupling and small membrane separations below 4 nm .

### Acknowledgements:

One of us (DA) would like to acknowledge partial support from the U.S.–Israel Binational Foundation (B.S.F.) under grant No. 98–00429 and the Israel Science Foundation, Centers of Excellence Program.