An operad of 3-manifolds

A coloured operad whose operadic operations are 3-cobordisms is introduced in this paper. This operad is presented purely combinatorially through diagrams in handlebodies together with a calculus, which is a generalization of Kirby’s calculus. Both integral and rational calculi are developed and a calculus consisting of finite set of local moves is presented in the paper. Mathematics Subject Classification (2010): 18D50, 57M25, 57M27