English

Borromean surgery formula for the Casson invariant

Geometric Topology 2010-02-09 v3

Abstract

It is known that every oriented integral homology 3-sphere can be obtained from S^3 by a finite sequence of Borromean surgeries. We give an explicit formula for the variation of the Casson invariant under such a surgery move. The formula involves simple classical invariants, namely the framing, linking number and Milnor's triple linking number. A more general statement, for n independent Borromean surgeries, is also provided, which involves an additional cubic expression in some linking numbers of the surgery link.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0509335,
  title  = {Borromean surgery formula for the Casson invariant},
  author = {Jean-Baptiste Meilhan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0509335},
  year   = {2010}
}

Comments

Final version. 11 pages. To appear in Algebraic & Geometric Topology

R2 v1 2026-07-22T17:24:32.950Z