Functional integration and abelian link invariants

Abstract

The functional integral computation of the various topological invariants, which are associated with the Chern-Simons field theory, is considered. The standard perturbative setting in quantum field theory is rewieved and new developments in the path-integral approach, based on the Deligne-Beilinson cohomology, are described in the case of the abelian U(1) Chern-Simons field theory formulated in S^1 x S^2.Comment: 20 pages, 4 figures, Contribution to the Proceedings of the workshop "Chern-Simons Gauge theory: 20 years after", Bonn, August 200