Vassiliev invariants for links from Chern-Simons perturbation theory

The general structure of the perturbative expansion of the vacuum expectation value of a product of Wilson-loop operators is analyzed in the context of Chem-Simons gauge theory, Wilson loops are opened into Wilson lines in order to unravel the algebraic structure encoded in the group factors of the perturbative series expansion. In the process a factorization theorem is proved for Wilson lines. Wilson lines are then closed back into Wilson loops and new link invariants of finite type are defined. Integral expressions for these invariants are presented for the first three primitive ones of lower degree in the case of two-component links. In addition, explicit numerical results are obtained for all two-component links of no more than six crossings up to degree four. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.