Torsions of 3-dimensional manifolds (Q1854907)

This is an excellent exposition about abelian Reidemeister torsions for three-manifolds. Abelian torsions include classical invariants such as the Alexander polynomial and the original torsion for lens spaces due to Franz, Reidemeister and de Rham and are related to Seiberg-Witten invariants. This research account covers a large number of results by the author, some of them new, and gives a complete picture of the state of the art of abelian torsions for three-manifolds. In the first chapter the author defines the refined torsion associated to a Euler structure, a homology orientation and an abelian representation of the fundamental group. He also defines the maximal abelian torsion (using the maximal abelian representation), so that all other abelian torsions are obtained from this one. Chapters II, III and IV are devoted to the relationship of this torsion with other classical invariants: the Alexander polynomial, the linking form in homology, the cup product form in cohomology and Thurston's norm. Chapters V, VI, VII and VIII develop all the machinery about glueing three-manifolds to obtain a surgery formula for the maximal abelian torsion. Chapters IX, X, XI deal with the torsion as a function on the space of Euler structures on the manifold. Those are naturally identified with complex spin structures, and the torsion function is then related to the Seiberg-Witten invariants by means of an axiomatic approach. Finally the last chapter gives miscellaneous new results. The exposition is complemented with some historical remarks at the end of each chapter and a list of open problems.