Perturbative BF theory in axial, Anosov, gauge

Abstract

The twisted Ruelle zeta function of a contact, Anosov vector field is shown to be equal, as a meromorphic function of the complex parameter $\hbar\in\mathbb{C}$ and up to a phase, to the partition function of an $\hbar$-linear quadratic perturbation of $BF$ theory, using an "axial" gauge fixing condition given by the Anosov vector field. Equivalently, it is also obtained as the expectation value of the same quadratic, $\hbar$-linear, perturbation, within a perturbative quantisation scheme for $BF$ theory, suitably generalised to work when propagators have distributional kernels.