A Wilson Line Realisation of Quantum Groups

Abstract

The study of this paper is Wilson line operators in 3-dimensional Chern-Simons theory on a manifold with boundaries. We prove to leading order through a direct calculation of Feynman integrals that the merging of parallel Wilson lines reproduces the coproduct on the quantum group $U_h(\mathfrak g)$. We outline a connection of this theory with the moduli spaces of local systems defined by Goncharov and Shen.