Functional Integral Construction of Topological Quantum Field Theory

Abstract

We introduce regular stratified piecewise linear manifolds to describe lattices and investigate the lattice model approach to topological quantum field theory in all dimensions. We introduce the unitary $n+1$ alterfold TQFT and construct it from a linear functional on an $n$-dimensional lattice model on an $n$-sphere satisfying three conditions: reflection positivity, homeomorphic invariance and complete finiteness. A unitary spherical $n$-category is mathematically defined and emerges as the local quantum symmetry of the lattice model. The alterfold construction unifies various constructions of $n+1$ TQFT from $n$-dimensional lattice models and $n$-categories. In particular, we construct a non-invertible unitary 3+1 alterfold TQFT from a linear functional and derive its local quantum symmetry as a unitary spherical 3-category of Ising type with explicit 20j-symbols, so that the scalar invariant of 2-knots in piecewise linear 4-manifolds could be computed explicitly.