Topological methods to compute Chern-Simons invariants

Abstract

In this paper we develop a method which may be used to compute the Chern-Simons invariants of a large class of representations on a large class of manifolds. This class includes all representations on all Seifert fiber spaces, all graph manifolds, and some hyperbolic manifolds. I owe many thanks to Peter Scott, John Harer, Frank Raymond, Ron Fintushel, Paul Kirk and Eric Klassen, without whose help and support this paper could not have been written.