Quantum Computation of Universal Link Invariants

In the framework of the spin-network simulator based on the SUq(2) tensor algebra, we implement families of finite state quantum automata capable of accepting the language generated by the braid group, and whose transition amplitudes are coloured Jones polynomials. The automaton calculation of the polynomial of a link L on n strands at any fixed root of unity q is bounded from above by a linear function of the number of crossings of the link, on the one hand, and polynomially bounded in terms of the braid index n, on the other.