English

Chern-Simons factorization algebras and knot polynomials

Quantum Algebra 2026-02-18 v1 Mathematical Physics Algebraic Topology Geometric Topology math.MP

Abstract

This work identifies the Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant of links in terms of a trace map on factorization homology. In particular, to recover the knot invariants associated to Chern-Simons theories, we construct a filtered E3\mathcal{E}_3-algebra Aλ\mathcal{A}^\lambda by BV quantization of Chern-Simons theory for a semi-simple Lie algebra g{\frak g} with invariant pairing~λ\lambda, and we prove that a finite-dimensional representation VV of the Drinfeld-Jimbo quantum group UgU_\hbar{\frak g} defines a perfect Aλ\mathcal{A}^\lambda module~V\mathcal{V}. For any framed link KK in R3\mathbb{R}^3, we then prove that there is an equality KR3tr(V)=ZV(KR3)\int_{K\subset\mathbb{R}^3}{\rm tr}(V) = Z_V(K\subset\mathbb{R}^3) between the factorization homology trace for VV and the Reshetikhin-Turaev link invariant determined by~VV.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2602.12412,
  title  = {Chern-Simons factorization algebras and knot polynomials},
  author = {Kevin Costello and John Francis and Owen Gwilliam},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.12412},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

75 pages; preliminary version, comments welcome

R2 v1 2026-07-01T10:34:30.288Z