Lens Spaces and Handlebodies in 3D Quantum Gravity

Abstract

We calculate partition functions for lens spaces L_{p,q} up to p=8 and for genus 1 and 2 handlebodies H_1, H_2 in the Turaev-Viro framework. These can be interpreted as transition amplitudes in 3D quantum gravity. In the case of lens spaces L_{p,q} these are vacuum-to-vacuum amplitudes $\text{O}->\text{O}$, whereas for the 1- and 2-handlebodies H_1, H_2 they represent genuinely topological transition amplitudes $\text{O}->T^2$ and \O -> T^2 # T^2, respectively.

Comments: 14 pages, LaTeX, 5 figures, uses epsf