Related papers: From simplicial Chern-Simons theory to the shadow …

Classical $\operatorname{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$-Chern-Simons theory assigns a $3$-manifold $M$ with representation $\rho : \pi_1(M) \to \operatorname{SL}_2(\mathbb{C})$ its complex volume $\operatorname{V}(M, \rho) \in \mathbb{C} / 2 \pi^2 i…

A general formula for physical observables in Chern-Simons theory with an arbitrary compact Lie group $G$, on an arbitrary closed oriented three-dimensional manifold $\cM$ is derived in terms of vacuum expectation values of Wilson loops in…

A new approach to the quantization of Chern-Simons theory has been developed in recent papers of the author. It uses a "simulation" of the moduli space of flat connections modulo the gauge group which reveals to be related to a lattice…

The expectation value of a Wilson loop in a Chern--Simons theory is a knot invariant. Its skein relations have been derived in a variety of ways, including variational methods in which small deformations of the loop are made and the changes…

The notion of a measure on the space of connections modulo gauge transformations that is invariant under diffeomorphisms of the base manifold is important in a variety of contexts in mathematical physics and topology. At the formal level,…

We derive two geometric approaches to categorification of quantum invariants of links associated to an arbitrary compact simple Lie group $^L{G}$. In part I, we describe the first approach, based on an equivariant derived category of…

We compute the invariants for a class of knots and links in arbitrary representations in $S^3/\mathbb{Z}_p$ in the large $k$ (level), large $N$ (rank) limit, keeping $N/(k+N)=\lambda$ fixed, in $U(N)$ and $Sp(N)$ Chern-Simons theories.…

We construct invertible field theories generalizing abelian prequantum spin Chern-Simons theory to manifolds of dimension 4k+3 endowed with a Wu structure of degree 2k+2. After analysing the anomalies of a certain discrete symmetry, we…

For any manifold M, the direct sum TM \oplus T*M carries a natural inner product given by the pairing of vectors and covectors. Differential forms on M may be viewed as spinors for the corresponding Clifford bundle, and in particular there…

Wilson lines in gauge theories admit several path integral descriptions. The first one (due to Alekseev-Faddeev-Shatashvili) uses path integrals over coadjoint orbits. The second one (due to Diakonov-Petrov) replaces a 1-dimensional path…

We use recent progress on Chern-Simons gauge theory in three dimensions [18] to give explicit, closed form formulas for the star product on some functions on the affine space ${\mathcal A}(\Sigma)$ of (smooth) connections on the trivialized…

It is well known that any three-manifold can be obtained by surgery on a framed link in $S^3$. Lickorish gave an elementary proof for the existence of the three-manifold invariants of Witten using a framed link description of the manifold…

Let $(M,\omega)$ be a symplectic manifold compact or convex at infinity. Consider a closed Lagrangian submanifold $L$ such that $\omega |_{\pi_2(M,L)}=0$ and $\mu|_{\pi_2(M,L)}=0$, where $\mu$ is the Maslov index. Given any Lagrangian…

A method to obtain explicit and complete topological solution of SU(2) Chern-Simons theory on $S^3$ is developed. To this effect the necessary aspects of the theory of coloured-oriented braids and duality properties of conformal blocks for…

Chern-Simons gauge theory for compact semisimple groups is analyzed from a perturbation theory point of view. The general form of the perturbative series expansion of a Wilson line is presented in terms of the Casimir operators of the gauge…

For the special case of the quantum group $SL_q (2,{\bf C})\ (q= \exp \pi i/r,\ r\ge 3)$ we present an alternative approach to quantum gauge theories in two dimensions. We exhibit the similarities to Witten's combinatorial approach which is…

With the smooth action of a connected compact Lie group G, we realize the G-invariant Thom-Smale complex in an analytic way using the G-invariant Witten instanton complex. Both complexes are associated to a specific Morse-Bott function on a…

We discretize Chern-Simons couplings in gauge invariant way. We obtain (p+q)-forms representing Chern-Simons couplings on (p + q)-simplexes from wedge products of p- and q-forms on p- and q-simplexes, respectively, where p- and q-simplexes…

Let M be a U(1) bundle over a smooth Riemann surface. I show that for Chern-Simons theory on M, with structure group G, the path integral is an integral over the space of G-connections on the Riemann surface involving characteristic classes…

In this paper we introduce invariants of semi-free Hamiltonian actions of $S\sp 1$ on compact symplectic manifolds (which satisfy some technical conditions related to positivity) using the space of solutions to certain gauge theoretical…