English

Internal Reshetikhin-Turaev TQFT

Geometric Topology 2023-08-25 v2 Algebraic Topology

Abstract

A 3-dimensional topological quantum field theory (TQFT) is a symmetric monoidal functor from the category of 3-cobordisms to the category of vector spaces. Such TQFTs provide in particular numerical invariants of closed 3-manifolds such as the Reshetikhin-Turaev invariants and representations of the mapping class group of closed surfaces. In 1994, using a modular category, Turaev explains how to construct a TQFT. In this article, we describe a generalization of this construction starting from a ribbon category C\mathcal{C} with coend. We present a cobordism by a special kind of tangle and we associate to the latter a morphism defined between tensorial products of the coend as described by Lyubashenko in 1994. Composing with an \emph{admissible} color and using extension of Kirby calculus on 3-cobordisms, this morphism gives rise to an \emph{internal} TQFT which takes values in the symmetric monoidal subcategory of transparent objects of C\mathcal{C}. When the category C\mathcal{C} is modular, this subcategory is equivalent to the category of vector spaces. When the category C\mathcal{C} is premodular and normalizable with invertible dimension, our TQFT is a lift of Turaev's one associated to the modularization of C\mathcal{C}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2308.03942,
  title  = {Internal Reshetikhin-Turaev TQFT},
  author = {Mickael Lallouche},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2308.03942},
  year   = {2023}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T11:50:25.085Z