Related papers: A Perturbative SU(3) Casson Invariant
This article surveys our ongoing project about the relationship between invariants extending the classical Rohlin invariant of homology spheres and those coming from 4-dimensional (Yang-Mills) gauge theory. The main conjecture towards which…
We introduce a unified framework for counting representations of knot groups into $SU(2)$ and $SL(2, \mathbb{R})$. For a knot $K$ in the 3-sphere, Lin and others showed that a Casson-style count of $SU(2)$ representations with fixed…
We develop a Laplace transform method for constructing universal invariants of 3-manifolds. As an application, we recover Habiro's theory of integer homology 3-spheres and extend it to some classes of rational homology 3-spheres with cyclic…
We define an invariant of rational homology 3-spheres via vector fields. The construction of our invariant is a generalization of both that of the Kontsevich-Kuperberg-Thurston invariant and that of Watanabe's Morse homotopy invariant,…
Let Z^{LMO} be the 3-manifold invariant of [LMO]. It is shown that Z^{LMO}(M)=1, if the first Betti number of M, b_{1}(M), is greater than 3. If b_{1}(M)=3, then Z^{LMO}(M) is completely determined by the cohomology ring of M. A relation of…
Using the combinatorial approach to knot Floer homology, we define an invariant for Legendrian knots in the three-sphere, which takes values in link Floer homology. This invariant can be used to also construct an invariant of transverse…
We introduce new polynomial isotopy invariants for closed braids. They are constructed as polynomial valued {\em Gauss diagram 1-cocycles} evaluated on the full rotation of the closed braid $\hat \beta$ around the core of the corresponding…
These introductory lectures show how to define finite type invariants of links and 3-manifolds by counting graph configurations in 3-manifolds, following ideas of Witten and Kontsevich. The linking number is the simplest finite type…
The SU(3) lattice gauge theory is reformulated in terms of SU(3) prepotential harmonic oscillators. This reformulation has enlarged $SU(3)\otimes U(1) \otimes U(1)$ gauge invariance under which the prepotential operators transform like…
A theory of finite type invariants for arbitrary compact oriented 3-manifolds is proposed, and illustrated through many examples arising from both classical and quantum topology. The theory is seen to be highly non-trivial even for…
This short survey, which was written to accompany a minicourse at the BIRS conference "Topology in dimension 4.5", concerns invariants of knotted $2$-spheres in $S^4$, also known as $2$-knots. It covers invariants extracted from the…
The Heegaard Floer correction term ($d$-invariant) is an invariant of rational homology 3-spheres equipped with a Spin$^c$ structure. In particular, the correction term of 1-surgeries along knots in $S^3$ is a ($2\mathbb{Z}$-valued) knot…
We develop simple computational techniques for constructing all possible SU(3) representations in terms of irreducible SU(3) Schwinger bosons. We show that these irreducible Schwinger oscillators make SU(3) representation theory as simple…
In this series of lectures, we (re)view the "geometric method" that reconstructs, from a geometric object: the "spectral curve", an integrable system, and in particular its Tau function, Baker-Akhiezer functions and "current amplitudes",…
A new topological invariant of closed connected orientable four-dimensional manifolds is proposed. The invariant, constructed via surgery on a special link, is a four-dimensional counterpart of the celebrated SU(2) three-manifold invariant…
We propose a notion of a ternary skew-symmetric covariant tensor of 3rd order, consider it as a 3-dimensional matrix and study a ten-dimensional complex space of these tensors. We split this space into a direct sum of two five-dimensional…
Assume that $M(\mathcal{T})$ is a rational homology sphere plumbed 3-manifold associated with a connected negative definite graph $\mathcal{T}$. We consider the combinatorial multivariable Poincar\'e series associated with $\mathcal{T}$ and…
Given a rank 2 hermitian bundle over a 3-manifold that is non-trivial admissible in the sense of Floer, one defines its Casson invariant as half the signed count of its projectively flat connections, suitably perturbed. We show that the…
An invariant $\mu_{\alpha}(K)$ of fibred knots $K$ in a homology sphere is defined for each $\alpha \in {\bold S}{\bold U}_n$ as follows. Since the knot is fibred, the knot complement is described by an element of the mapping class group,…
All knots in $R^3$ possess Seifert surfaces, and so the classical Thurston-Bennequin and rotation (or Maslov) invariants for Legendrian knots in a contact structure on $R^3$ can be defined. The definitions extend easily to null-homologous…