Integrality and gauge dependence of Hennings TQFTs

Abstract We provide a general construction of integral TQFTs over a general commutative ring, k , starting from a finite Hopf algebra over k which is Frobenius and double balanced. These TQFTs specialize to the Hennings invariants of the respective doubles on closed 3-manifolds. We show the construction applies to index 2 extensions of the Borel parts of Lusztig's small quantum groups for all simple Lie types, yielding integral TQFTs over the cyclotomic integers for surfaces with one boundary component. We further establish and compute isomorphisms of TQFT functors constructed from Hopf algebras that are related by a strict gauge transformation in the sense of Drinfeld. Formulas for the natural isomorphisms are given in terms of the gauge twist element. These results are combined and applied to show that the Hennings invariant associated to quantum- sl 2 takes values in the cyclotomic integers. Using prior results of Chen et al. we infer integrality also of the Witten–Reshetikhin–Turaev S O ( 3 ) invariant for rational homology spheres. As opposed to most other approaches the methods described in this article do not invoke calculations of skeins, knots polynomials, or representation theory, but follow a combinatorial construction that uses only the elements and operations of the underlying Hopf algebras.