The mathematical picture language project that we began in 2016 has already yielded interesting results. We also point out areas of mathematics and physics where we hope that it will prove useful in the future.

We give a transparent algebraic formulation of our pictorial approach to the reflection positivity (RP), that we introduced in a previous paper. We apply this quantization to the 2+1 Levin–Wen model to obtain 1+1 anyonic/quantum spin chain theory on the boundary, possibly entangled in the bulk. 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.

The classical de Finetti theorem in probability theory relates symmetry under the permutation group with the independence of random variables. This result has application in quantum information. Here we study states that are invariant with respect to a natural action of the braid group, and we emphasize the pictorial formulation and interpretation of our results. We prove a new type of de Finetti theorem for the four-string, double-braid group acting on the parafermion algebra to braid qudits, a natural symmetry in the quon language for quantum information. We prove that a braid-invariant state is extremal if and only if it is a product state. Furthermore, we provide an explicit characterization of braid-invariant states on the parafermion algebra, including finding a distinction that depends on whether the order of the parafermion algebra is square free. We characterize the extremal nature of product states (an inverse de Finetti theorem).

We explore the tunneling behavior of a quantum particle on a finite graph in the presence of an asymptotically large potential with two or three potential wells. The behavior of the particle is primarily governed by the local spectral symmetry of the graph around the wells. In the case of two wells the behavior is stable in the sense that it can be predicted from a sufficiently large neighborhood of the wells. However in the case of three wells we are able to exhibit examples where the tunneling behavior can be changed significantly by perturbing the graph arbitrarily far from the wells.

Quon language is a 3D picture language that we can apply to simulate mathematical concepts. We introduce the surface algebras as an extension of the notion of planar algebras to higher genus surface. We prove that there is a unique one-parameter extension. The 2D defects on the surfaces are quons, and surface tangles are transformations. We use quon language to simulate graphic states that appear in quantum information, and to simulate interesting quantities in modular tensor categories. This simulation relates the pictorial Fourier duality of surface tangles and the algebraic Fourier duality induced by the S matrix of the modular tensor category. The pictorial Fourier duality also coincides with the graphic duality on the sphere. For each pair of dual graphs, we obtain an algebraic identity related to the S matrix. These identities include well-known ones, such as the Verlinde formula; partially known ones, such as the 6j-symbol self-duality; and completely new ones.