Thomas Kerler, Ohio State University, January 14, 2002

Title: p-modular TQFT, symplectic representations theory and the Casson Lescop Invariant.

Abstract: We extract common structures between three quite differently constructed TQFT's in three dimensions. Namely the constant order of the Reshetikhin Turaev quantum theory, the Johnson-Morita extension of the abelian Frohman-Nicas theory and Donaldson TQFT via the cohomology of SU(2)-moduli spaces. This leads in some cases to identifications and TQFT interpretations of Milnor Torsion. We consider deformations of these TQFT's over some F to TQFT's over F[y]/y^2 which naturally lead to candidates for TQFT intepretations of the Casson-Lescop invariant via TQFT-variations of formulae of Morita.