A Rigorous Functional-Integral Construction of Toral Chern-Simons Theory

Abstract

We construct the functional integral of Abelian Chern-Simons theory with toral gauge group $\mathbb T=\mathfrak t/\Lambda \cong U(1)^n$ at level $K$, where $K:\Lambda\times\Lambda\to\mathbb Z$ is an even, integral, nondegenerate symmetric bilinear form, by exact zeta-regularized Gaussian evaluation of the formal quotient integral over connections modulo gauge. For closed $3$-manifolds, this yields a topological invariant; for manifolds with boundary, the relative functional integral produces the canonical boundary state. The resulting theory satisfies the required axioms of a $(2+1)$-dimensional TQFT.