We discuss the analogy between topological entanglement and quantum entanglement, particularly for tripartite quantum systems. We illustrate our approach by first discussing two clearly (topologically) inequivalent systems of three-ring links: The Bo
rromean rings, in which the removal of any one link leaves the remaining two non-linked (or, by analogy, non-entangled); and an inequivalent system (which we call the NUS link) for which the removal of any one link leaves the remaining two linked (or, entangled in our analogy). We introduce unitary representations for the appropriate Braid Group ($B_3$) which produce the related quantum entangled systems. We finally remark that these two quantum systems, which clearly possess inequivalent entanglement properties, are locally unitarily equivalent.
Important developments in fault-tolerant quantum computation using the braiding of anyons have placed the theory of braid groups at the very foundation of topological quantum computing. Furthermore, the realization by Kauffman and Lomonaco that a spe
cific braiding operator from the solution of the Yang-Baxter equation, namely the Bell matrix, is universal implies that in principle all quantum gates can be constructed from braiding operators together with single qubit gates. In this paper we present a new class of braiding operators from the Temperley-Lieb algebra that generalizes the Bell matrix to multi-qubit systems, thus unifying the Hadamard and Bell matrices within the same framework. Unlike previous braiding operators, these new operators generate {it directly}, from separable basis states, important entangled states such as the generalized Greenberger-Horne-Zeilinger states, cluster-like states, and other states with varying degrees of entanglement.
