Finite type invariants of 3-manifolds

In this paper we develop a theory for constructing an invariant of closed oriented 3-manifolds, given a certain type of Hopf algebra. Examples are given by a quantised enveloping algebra of a semisimple Lie algebra, or by a semisimple involutory Hopf algebra. The invariant is defined by a state sum model on a triangulation. In some cases, the invariant is the partition function of a topological quantum field theory.

We review "quantum" invariants of closed oriented 3-dimensional manifolds arising from operator algebras.

A 3-manifold $M$ is said to be $p$-periodic ($p\geq 2$ an integer) if and only if the finite cyclic group of order $p$ acts on $M$ with a circle as the set of fixed points. This paper provides a criterion for periodicity of rational homology three-spheres. Namely, we give a necessary condition for a rational homology three-sphere to be periodic with a prime period. This condition is given in terms of the quantum SU(3) invariant. We also discuss similar results for the Murakam...

We apply the theory of finite-type invariants of homology 3-spheres to investigate the structure of the Torelli group. We construct natural cocycles in the Torelli group and show that the lower central series quotients of the Torelli group map onto a vector space of trivalent graphs. We also have analogous results for two other natural subgroups of the mapping class group.

In this paper, it is explained that a topological invariant for 3-manifold $M$ with $b_1(M)=1$ can be constructed by applying Fukaya's Morse homotopy theoretic approach for Chern--Simons perturbation theory to a local system on $M$ of rational functions associated to the free abelian covering of $M$. Our invariant takes values in Garoufalidis--Rozansky's space of Jacobi diagrams whose edges are colored by rational functions. It is expected that our invariant gives a lot of no...

We introduce a homology surgery problem in dimension 3 which has the property that the vanishing of its algebraic obstruction leads to a canonical class of \pi-algebraically-split links in 3-manifolds with fundamental group \pi . Using this class of links, we define a theory of finite type invariants of 3-manifolds in such a way that invariants of degree 0 are precisely those of conventional algebraic topology and surgery theory. When finite type invariants are reformulated i...

We define some new invariants for 3-manifolds using the space of taut codim-1 foliations along with various techniques from noncommutative geometry. These invariants originate from our attempt to generalise Topological Quantum Field Theories in the Noncommutative geometry / topology realm.

In this paper we define a class of state-sum invariants of compact closed oriented piece-wise linear 4-manifolds using finite groups. The definition of these state-sums follows from the general abstract construction of 4-manifold invariants using spherical 2-categories, as we defined in a previous paper, although it requires a slight generalization of that construction. We show that the state-sum invariants of Birmingham and Rakowski, who studied Dijkgraaf-Witten type invaria...

Garoufalidis and Levine defined a filtration for 3-manifolds equipped with some degree 1 map ($\mathbb{Z}\pi$-homology equivalence) to a fixed 3-manifold $N$ and showed that there is a natural surjection from a space of $\pi=\pi_1N$-decorated graphs to the graded quotient of the filtration over $\mathbb{Z}[\frac{1}{2}]$. In this paper, we show that in the case of $N=T^3$ the surjection of Garoufalidis--Levine is actually an isomorphism over $\mathbb{Q}$. For the proof, we con...

Cubic complexes appear in the theory of finite type invariants so often that one can ascribe them to basic notions of the theory. In this paper we begin the exposition of finite type invariants from the `cubic' point of view. Finite type invariants of knots and homology 3-spheres fit perfectly into this conception. In particular, we get a natural explanation why they behave like polynomials.