Perturbative invariants of 3-manifolds with the first Betti number 1 (Q991851)

The Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev invariant [\textit{E. Witten}, Commun. Math. Phys. 121, No.~3, 351--399 (1989; Zbl 0667.57005), \textit{N. Reshetikhin} and \textit{V. G. Turaev}, Invent. Math. 103, No.~3, 547--597 (1991; Zbl 0725.57007)] associated to the Lie group \(SU(2)\) is defined for each (complex) root of unity. The \(SO(3)\) version of the WRT invariant, introduced by \textit{R. Kirby} and \textit{P. Melvin} [ibid. 105, No.~3, 473--545 (1991; Zbl 0745.57006)], is defined for roots of unity of odd order, and refines the \(SU(2)\) invariant slightly. \textit{T. Ohtsuki} [ibid. 123, No.~2, 241--257 (1996; Zbl 0855.57016)] introduced a ``perturbative expansion'' of the \(SO(3)\) invariant, also called the Ohtsuki series, of rational homology spheres (i.e. closed 3-manifolds with first Betti number zero), which takes values in the formal power series ring \(\mathbb{Q}[[q-1]]\). This invariant unifies the quantum \(SO(3)\) invariants of roots of unity of odd prime orders in the sense that evaluation of the series at such a root of unity \(\zeta\) is well-defined and coincides with the \(SO(3)\) invariant at \(\zeta\) [\textit{L. Rozansky}, Primes and knots. Proceedings of an AMS special session, Baltimore, MD, USA, January 15--16, 2003 and the 15th JAMI (Japan-US Mathematics Institute) conference, Baltimore, MD, USA, March 7--16, 2003. Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society (AMS). Contemporary Mathematics 416, 213--236 (2006; Zbl 1137.57018)]. The paper under review introduces a version of the Ohtsuki series for closed 3-manifolds with first Betti number one. This invariant, \(\tau(M;c)\in\mathbb{C}[[q-1]]\), is defined for each such manifold \(M\) and a parameter \(c\in\mathbb{C}\) which is either \(0\) or a root of the Alexander polynomial of \(M\). The proof of existence of this invariant uses the loop expansion of the Kontsevich integral of a knot in rational homology spheres.