English

Perturbative and nonperturbative aspects of complex Chern-Simons Theory

High Energy Physics - Theory 2017-10-25 v3 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

We present an elementary review of some aspects of Chern-Simons theory with complex gauge group SL(N,C). We discuss some of the challenges in defining the theory as a full-fledged TQFT, as well as some successes inspired by the 3d-3d correspondence. The 3d-3d correspondence relates partition functions (and other aspects) of complex Chern-Simons theory on a 3-manifold M to supersymmetric partition functions (and other observables) in an associated 3d theory T[M]. Many of these observables may be computed by supersymmetric localization. We present several prominent applications to 3-manifold topology and number theory in light of the 3d-3d correspondence.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1608.02961,
  title  = {Perturbative and nonperturbative aspects of complex Chern-Simons Theory},
  author = {Tudor Dimofte},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1608.02961},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

This is a contribution to the review volume `Localization techniques in quantum field theories' (eds. V. Pestun and M. Zabzine) which contains 17 Chapters. The complete volume is summarized in arXiv:1608.02952 and it can be downloaded at https://arxiv.org/src/1608.02952/anc/LocQFT.pdf or http://pestun.ihes.fr/pages/LocalizationReview/LocQFT.pdf