Geometric torsions and an Atiyah-style topological field theory

Abstract

The construction of invariants of three-dimensional manifolds with a triangulated boundary, proposed earlier by the author for the case when the boundary consists of not more than one connected component, is generalized to any number of components. These invariants are based on the torsion of acyclic complexes of geometric origin. The relevant tool for studying our invariants turns out to be F.A. Berezin's calculus of anti-commuting variables; in particular, they are used in the formulation of the main theorem of the paper, concerning the composition of invariants under a gluing of manifolds. We show that the theory obeys a natural modification of M. Atiyah's axioms for anti-commuting variables.