Quantum computation and the localization of modular functors

The mathematical problem of localizing modular functors to neighbor-hoods of points is shown to be closely related to the physical problem of engineering a local Hamiltonian for a computationally universal quantum medium. For genus = 0 surfaces, such a local Hamiltonian is mathematically defined. Braiding defects of this medium implements a representation associated to the Jones polynomial and this representation is known to be universal for quantum computation.