This book offers a self-contained account of the 3-manifold invariants
arising from the original Jones polynomial. These are the
Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev and the Turaev-Viro invariants. Starting from
the Kauffman bracket model for the Jones polynomial and the diagrammatic
Temperley-Lieb algebra, higher-order polynomial invariants of links are
constructed and combined to form the 3-manifold invariants. The methods
in this book are based on a recoupling theory for the Temperley-Lieb
algebra. This recoupling theory is a q-deformation of the SU(2) spin
networks of Roger Penrose.
The recoupling theory is developed in a purely combinatorial and
elementary manner. Calculations are based on a reformulation of the
Kirillov-Reshetikhin shadow world, leading to expressions for all the
invariants in terms of state summations on 2-cell complexes. Extensive
tables of the invariants are included. Manifolds in these tables are
recognized by surgery presentations and by means of 3-gems (graph
encoded 3-manifolds) in an approach pioneered by Sostenes Lins. The
appendices include information about gems, examples of distinct
manifolds with the same invariants, and applications to the Turaev-Viro
invariant and to the Crane-Yetter invariant of 4-manifolds.