Splitting formulas for the LMO invariant of rational homology three-spheres (Q488579)

\textit{T. T. Q. Le} et al. [Topology 37, No. 3, 539--574 (1998; Zbl 0897.57017)] defined a universal perturbative invariant of rational homology 3-spheres (multiplicative under connected sum); as noted by the author, there are two universal finite-type invariants for rational homology 3-spheres, the LMO-invariant and the Kontsevich-Kuperberg-Thurston invariant, both taking values in the same space of Jacobi diagrams, but it is not known whether they are equal (the LMO-invariant coincides with the Aarhus integral introduced by \textit{D. Bar-Natan} et al. [Sel. Math., New Ser. 10, No. 3, 305--324 (2004; Zbl 1060.57010)]). Lescop proved some splitting formulas for the Kontsevich-Kuperberg-Thurston invariant for a certain type of rational homology handlebody replacement [``Lagrangian-preserving surgery''; \url{arXiv:math.GT/0411431}]. In the present paper it is shown that the LMO-invariant satisfies exactly the same relations: ``The proof is based on the LMO-functor which is a generalization of the LMO-invariant to the category of 3-dimensional cobordisms, and we generalize Lescop's splitting formulas to this setting.''