Chern-Simons approach to three-manifold invariants

Abstract

% A new, formal, non-combinatorial approach to invariants of % three-dimensional manifolds of Reshetikhin, Turaev and % Witten in the framework of non-perturbative topological % quantum Chern-Simons theory, corresponding to an arbitrary % compact simple Lie group, is presented. A direct % implementation of surgery instructions in the context of % quantum field theory is proposed. An explicit form of the % specialization of the invariant to the group SU(2) is % derived, and shown to agree with the result of Lickorish. % % AMS subject classifications (1991): 57M25, 57N10, 57R65, 81T13.