Building Blocks in Turaev-Viro Theory

Abstract

We study the form of the Turaev-Viro partition function Z(M) for different 3-manifolds with boundary. We show that for $S^2$ boundaries Z(M) factorizes into a term which contains the boundary dependence and another which depends only on the topology of the underlying manifold. From this follows easily the formula for the connected sum of two manifolds Z(M # N). For general $T_g$ boundaries this factorization holds only in a particular case.

19 pages, LaTeX, 4 Postscript figures, uses epsf; minor correction