A meromorphic extension of the 3D index (Q2319862)

The main result of this paper is the following. Let \(M\) be a 3-manifold with boundary a union of tori. To each ideal triangulation \(\mathcal{T}\) and element \(\alpha \in H^1(\partial M, \mathbb{C}^*)\), the authors associate a meromorphic function \(I_{\mathcal T,\alpha}(q)\) on the unit disk \(|q|1\), given by a balanced state integral depending only on the Neumann-Zagier matrices of the gluing equations \(\mathcal{T}\) and with controlled singularities. This function \(I_{\mathcal T,\alpha}(q)\) is in fact a topological invariant of \(M\) in the following sense: the authors prove that their function is invariant under 2-3 Pachner moves in \(\mathcal{T}\). Furthermore, if \(\mathcal{T}\) admits a ``strict angle structure'', then \(I_{\mathcal{T},\alpha}(q)\) has a Laurent series expansion whose coefficients are the ``3D Index'' of \textit{T. Dimofte} et al. [Adv. Theor. Math. Phys. 17, No. 5, 975--1076 (2013; Zbl 1297.81149)]. That latter index was discovered by investigating a low energy limit of a famous 6-dimensional (2,0) superconformal field theory. Physics predicts that it should be a topological invariant, but it is in fact only defined for ``suitable'' ideal triangulations: those with no normal 2-spheres or tori. The set of suitable ideal triangulations is not known to be connected under 2-3 Pachner moves. A corollary of the results of this paper is that, nevertheless, the Dimofte-Gaiotto-Gukov 3D Index is indeed constant on the set of all suitable ideal triangulations.