Non-Semisimple Topological Quantum Field Theories for 3-Manifolds with Corners

Download or read book Non-Semisimple Topological Quantum Field Theories for 3-Manifolds with Corners written by Thomas Kerler and published by Springer. This book was released on 2003-07-01 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents the (to date) most general approach to combinatorial constructions of topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) in three dimensions. The authors describe extended TQFTs as double functors between two naturally defined double categories: one of topological nature, made of 3-manifolds with corners, the other of algebraic nature, made of linear categories, functors, vector spaces and maps. Atiyah's conventional notion of TQFTs as well as the notion of modular functor from axiomatic conformal field theory are unified in this concept. A large class of such extended modular catergory is constructed, assigning a double functor to every abelian modular category, which does not have to be semisimple.