Extended Bloch group and the Cheeger-Chern-Simons class

Walter D Neumann

Published 2003-07-08, updated 2004-02-15Version 2

We define an extended Bloch group and show it is naturally isomorphic to H_3(PSL(2,C)^\delta ;Z). Using the Rogers dilogarithm function this leads to an exact simplicial formula for the universal Cheeger-Chern-Simons class on this homology group. It also leads to an independent proof of the analytic relationship between volume and Chern-Simons invariant of hyperbolic 3-manifolds conjectured by Neumann and Zagier [Topology 1985] and proved by Yoshida [Invent. Math. 1985] as well as effective formulae for the Chern-Simons invariant of a hyperbolic 3-manifold.