A boundary characterization of Turaev-Viro TQFTs

Abstract: We consider three-dimensional topological field theories on manifolds with boundary defects and identify explicit boundary locality conditions. These conditions imply a state sum construction of the given TQFT. As a consistency check, we prove that Turaev-Viro state sum models obey the boundary locality conditions. Recent progress (arXiv:2410.18049v1) in the description of defects in Dijkgraaf-Witten theories enables us to show that these theories likewise satisfy boundary locality. This directly implies that Dijkgraaf-Witten theories with boundary defects admit a state sum description.