Non ambiguous structures on 3-manifolds and quantum symmetry defects (Q1691977)

The authors study a newly discovered universal structure underlying the quantum invariants of hyperbolic manifolds that are built from \(6j\)-symbols by taking state sums over triangulations. They call it non-ambiguous structure. Such a theory associates to each \(3\)-simplex \(\Delta\) of a triangulation, with edge orientations \(b\) and decoration \(d\), a tensor \(\mathcal{B}(\Delta,b,d)\). Given a triangulation \(T\), the authors call the induced system of \(2\)-face coorientations, that match under \(2\)-face pairings, a global pre-branching of \(T\). The total contraction of the network of \(\mathcal{B}\) tensors is called the reduced state sum. In the usual approach, to get a \(3\)-manifold invariant one symmetrizes the tensors first, and the symmetrization depends on the \(6j\)-symbol theory in use. But the authors notice that already the reduced state sums verify a highly non-trivial system of functional identities, and depend only on the pre-branching modulo certain moves, called non-ambiguous transits. The equivalence classes of pre-branchings are called non-ambiguous structures. The reduced state sums are invariants of \(3\)-manifolds equipped with such structures, and the complementary invariants are called symmetry defects. The paper studies two types of non-ambiguous structures, and showcases the approach in the case of quantum hyperbolic invariants of cusp manifolds. Much of the standard machinery emerges despite the independence of the \(6j\)-symbols. The first type, induced by ideal triangulations of the interiors of compact oriented \(3\)-manifolds with non-empty boundary, is central to the paper, the second type, induced by ``distinguished triangulations'' of compact closed oriented \(3\)-manifolds with links, is considered only briefly. The ideal non-ambiguous structures are shown to have intrinsic cohomological content related to the theory of charges and cohomological weights appearing in quantum hyperbolic invariants. An illuminating ``holographic'' approach relates the ideal 3D structures on \(M\) to suitably defined restrictions on \(\partial M\). The latter carry ``singular combings'' that turn out to be invariants of the original structures. When \(\partial M\) is a collection of tori the set of taut pre-branched ideal triangulations (if any) defines a non-ambiguous structure. The taut structures do exist on the mapping tori with a punctured fiber of negative Euler characteristic, and more generally, on sutured manifold hierarchies. When \(M\) is fibered over \(S^1\), there is, for every fibered face \(\mathcal{F}\) of the Thurston ball (the unit ball of \(H_2(M,\partial M;\mathbb{R})\) in the Thurston norm), a map that associates to every rational point of \(\text{int}(\mathcal{F})\) a taut structure on \(M\). It turns out that the symmetry defects of quantum hyperbolic invariants can distinguish taut structures corresponding to different fibrations at least on some cusped hyperbolic manifolds. The examples considered are the figure eight complement, its sister, and the Whitehead link complement. The Turaev-Viro invariants are also briefly treated from the non-ambiguous perspective in the Appendix.