2022/05/13 by Catherine Meusburger, Meusburger, Catherine · 1 citation
Mathematics · #Algebraic structures and combinatorial models #Category Theory (math.CT) #FOS: Mathematics #FOS: Physical sciences #Geometric Topology (math.GT) #Geometric and Algebraic Topology #Homotopy and Cohomology in Algebraic Topology #Mathematical Physics (math-ph) #Quantum Algebra (math.QA)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2205.06874
openalex publication_date 2022/05/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We define a Turaev-Viro-Barrett-Westbury state sum model of triangulated 3-manifolds with surface, line and point defects. Surface defects are oriented embedded 2d PL submanifolds and are labeled with bimodule categories over spherical fusion categories with bimodule traces. Line and point defects form directed graphs on these surfaces and labeled with bimodule functors and bimodule natural transformations. The state sum is based on generalised 6j symbols that encode the coherence isomorphisms of the defect data. We prove the triangulation independence of the state sum and show that it can be computed in terms of polygon diagrams that satisfy the cutting and gluing identities for polygon presentations of oriented surfaces. By computing state sums with defect surfaces, we show that they detect the genus of a defect surface and are sensitive to its embedding. We show that defect lines on defect surfaces with trivial defect data define ribbon invariants for the centre of the underlying spherical fusion category.