Global surgery formula for the Casson-Walker invariant (AM-140)

This book presents a new result in 3-dimensional topology. It is well known that any closed oriented 3-manifold can be obtained by surgery on a framed link in S 3. In Global Surgery Formula for the Casson-Walker Invariant, a function F of framed links in S 3 is described, and it is proven that F consistently defines an invariant, lamda (l), of closed oriented 3-manifolds. l is then expressed in terms of previously known invariants of 3-manifolds. For integral homology spheres, l is the invariant introduced by Casson in 1985, which allowed him to solve old and famous questions in 3-dimensional