Quantum invariants and finite group actions on three-manifolds. (Q1421995)

It is well known from Lickorish's work (see \textit{W. B. R. Lickorish} [Ann. Math. (2) 76, 531--540 (1962; Zbl 0106.37102)]) that any closed connected orientable 3-manifold can be obtained by the process of surgery on a framed link in \(\mathbb S^3\). In this paper the author is interested in studying periodic 3-manifolds, that is manifolds on which the finite cyclic group \(\mathbb Z /p\mathbb Z\) acts with a circle as the set of fixed points. Recently Przytycki and Sokolov have shown that any periodic 3-manifold can be obtained from the 3-sphere by surgery along a strongly periodic link. The idea of amplyfing the Jones polynomial of links in order to achieve a 3-manifold invariant was first introduced by \textit{E. Witten} [Commun. Math. Phys. 121, No. 3, 351--399 (1989; Zbl 0667.57005)]. The resulting invariants are known as Witten's quantum \(SU(2)\) 3-manifold invariants and a proof, using quantum groups, of the existence of these invariants was given first by N. Y. Reshitikhin and V. G. Turaev. A construction of these invariants using the skein theory associated to the Kauffman bracket was given by Lickorish. Along the lines of Lickorish's work a skein linear theory for \(SU(3)\) invariants of 3-manifolds was defined by Ohtsuki and Yamada and then extended by Miyazawa and Okamoto. In this paper the author makes use of the quantum \(SU(3)\) invariants in order to provide a necessary condition for a rational homology 3--sphere to be periodic with a prime period. A similar result is obtained also for the MOO invariant [see \textit{H. Murakami}, \textit{T. Ohtsuki} and \textit{S. Okada}, Osaka J. Math. 29, No. 3, 545--572 (1992; Zbl 0776.57009)].