Spherical 2-Categories and 4-Manifold Invariants

Spherical 2-categories and 4-manifold Invariants

Finite groups, spherical 2-categories, and 4-manifold invariants

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 [32], although it requires a slight generalization of that construction. We show that the state-sum invariant...

m at h . Q A ] 2 3 M ay 1 99 8 Spherical 2 - categories and 4 - manifold invariants

m at h . Q A ] 2 5 O ct 1 99 8 Spherical 2 - categories and 4 - manifold invariants

A Gauge-field Approach to 3- and 4-manifold Invariants

An approach to construction of topological invariants of the Reshetikhin-TuraevWitten type of 3and 4-dimensional manifolds in the framework of SU(2) Chern-Simons gauge theory and its hidden (quantum) gauge symmetry is presented. 1. Intoduction. The issue of topological classification of low-dimensional manifolds, especially of dimensions 3 and 4 (the most difficult and interesting ones), is a c...