Partition Function of a Quadratic Functional and Semiclassical Approximation for Witten's 3-Manifold Invariant

An extension of the method and results of A. Schwarz for evaluating the partition function of a quadratic functional is presented. This enables the partition functions to be evaluated for a wide class of quadratic functionals of interest in topological quantum field theory, for which no other method has previously been available. In particular it enables the partition functions appearing in the semiclassical approximation for the Witten-invariant to be evaluated in the most general case. The resulting k-dependence is precisely that conjectured by D. Freed and R. Gompf.