Computer Calculation of Witten's 3-Manifold Invariant -- from Wolfram Library Archive

Title

Computer Calculation of Witten's 3-Manifold Invariant

Authors

D. Freed

R. Gompf

Journal / Anthology

Communications in Mathematical Physics

Year:

1991

Volume:

141

Issue:

Page range:

79-117

Description

Witten's 2+1 dimensional Chern-Simons theory is exactly solvable. We compute the partition function, a topological invariant of 3-manifolds, on generalized Seifert spaces. Thus we test the path integral using the theory of 3-manifolds. In particular, we compare the exact solution with the asymptotic formula predicted by perturbation theory. We conclude that this path integral works as advertised and gives an effective topological invariant.

Subject

Mathematics > Topology

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