Quantum Riemann Surfaces in Chern-Simons Theory

Abstract

We construct from first principles the operator 'A-hat' that annihilates the partition functions (or wavefunctions) of three-dimensional Chern-Simons theory with gauge groups SU(2), SL(2,R), or SL(2,C) on a knot complement M. The operator 'A-hat' is a quantization of the knot complement's classical A-polynomial A(l,m). The construction proceeds by decomposing three-manifolds into ideal tetrahedra, and invoking a new, more global understanding of gluing in TQFT to put them back together. We advocate in particular that, properly interpreted, "gluing = symplectic reduction." We also arrive at a new finite-dimensional state integral model for computing the analytically continued "holomorphic blocks" that compose any physical Chern-Simons partition function.

110 pages, 14 figures; v2: references added and clarified, discussion of character varieties (Sec. 2) improved; v3: small typos corrected in Sec 6.3.2

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