Arithmetic Chern-Simons Theory I

Abstract

In this paper, we apply ideas of Dijkgraaf and Witten on 2+1 dimensional topological quantum field theory to arithmetic curves, that is, the spectra of rings of integers in algebraic number fields. In the first three sections, we define classical Chern-Simons functionals on spaces of Galois representations. In the highly speculative section 5, we consider the far-fetched possibility of using Chern-Simons theory to construct L-functions.