Ponzano-Regge model revisited: I. Gauge fixing, observables and interacting spinning particles

We show how to properly gauge fix all the symmetries of the Ponzano-Regge model for 3D quantum gravity. This amounts to doing explicit finite computations for transition amplitudes. We give the construction of the transition amplitudes in the presence of interacting quantum spinning particles. We introduce a notion of operators whose expectation value gives rise to either gauge fixing, introduction of time, or insertion of particles, according to the choice. We give the link between the spin foam quantization and the Hamiltonian quantization. We finally show the link between the Ponzano-Regge model and the quantization of Chern-Simons theory based on the double quantum group of SU(2).