Asymptotic expansions of heat kernels and heat traces of Schrödinger operators on non-compact spaces are rarely explored, and even for cases as simple as $\mathbb{C}^n$ with (quasi-homogeneous) polynomials potentials, it's already very complicated. Motivated by path integral formulation of the heat kernel, we introduced a parabolic distance, which also appeared in Li-Yau's famous work on parabolic Harnack estimate. With the help of the parabolic distance, we derive a pointwise asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel for the Witten Laplacian with strong remainder estimate. When the deformation parameter of Witten deformation and time parameter are coupled, we derive an asymptotic expansion of trace of heat kernel for small-time $t$, and obtain a local index theorem. This is the second of our papers in understanding Landau-Ginzburg B-models on nontrivial spaces, and in subsequent work, we will develop the Ray-Singer torsion for Witten deformation in the non-compact setting.
The goal of this article is to generalise the Witten deformation to even dimensional conic manifolds and a class of functions called admissible Morse functions.
We express Witten's deformation of Morse functions using deformation to the normal cone and $C^*$-modules. This allows us to obtain asymptotics of the `large eigenvalues'. Our methods extend to Morse functions along a foliation. We construct the Witten deformation using any generic function on an arbitrary foliation on a compact manifold and establish the compactness of its resolvent. When the foliation has a holonomy invariant transverse measure we show that our result implies Morse inequalities obtained by Connes and Fack in a slightly more general situation.
In this undergraduate thesis, we present an analytical proof of the Morse inequalities for closed smooth $n$-manifolds following Witten's approach. Using techniques from PDE theory, the proof is reduced to study the eigenspaces and eigenvalues of harmonic oscillators on $\mathbb{R}^n$.
In this paper, we give a brute-force proof of the Kastler-Kalau-Walze type theorem for $7$-dimensional manifolds with boundary about Witten deformation, and give a theoritic explaination of the gravitational action for $7$ dimensional manifolds with boundary.
We introduce a Witten-Novikov type perturbation $\bar\partial_{\barω}$ of the Dolbeault complex of any complex Kähler manifold, defined by a form $ω$ of type $(1,0)$ with $\partialω=0$. We give an explicit description of the associated index density which shows that it exhibits a nontrivial dependence on $ω$. The heat invariants of lower order are shown to be zero.
The Witten deformation associated to a Morse function on a closed Riemannian manifold, via Rellich-Kato theorem, relates analytically the spectral package of the Riemannian manifold (eigenvalues and eigenforms) to the Morse complex defined by the pair (Morse function, Riemannian metric) coupled with the "multivariable harmonic oscillators" associated to the critical points of the Morse function. We survey this relation and discuss some implications, including the finite subset of the spectral package referred to as the "virtually small spectral package" .
Associated with every quaternionic representation of a compact, connected Lie group there is a Seiberg-Witten equation in dimension three. The moduli spaces of solutions to these equations are typically non-compact. We construct Kuranishi models around boundary points of a partially compactified moduli space. The Haydys correspondence identifies such boundary points with Fueter sections - solutions of a non-linear Dirac equation - of the bundle of hyperkähler quotients associated with the quaternionic representation. We discuss when such a Fueter section can be deformed to a solution of the Se…
This is a simple reading report of professor Weiping Zhang's lectures. In this article we will mainly introduce the basic ideas of Witten deformation, which were first introduced by Edward Witten on, and some applications of it. The first part of this article mainly focuses on deformation of Dirac operators and some important analytic facts about the deformed Dirac operators. In the second part of this article some applications of Witten deformation will be given, to be more specific, an analytic proof of Poincar$\acute{e}$-Hopf index theorem and Real Morse Inequilities will be given. Also we …
As is well-known, the Witten deformation of the De Rham complex computes the De Rham cohomology. In this paper we study the Witten deformation on a noncompact manifold and restrict it to differential forms which behave polynomially near infinity. Such polynomial differential forms naturally appear on manifolds with a cylindrical structure. We prove that the cohomology of the Witten deformation acting on the complex of the polynomially growing forms can be computed as the relative cohomology of the manifold with respect to the negative remote fiber of the function. We show that the assumptions …
Motivated by the Landau-Ginzburg model, we study the Witten deformation on a noncompact manifold with bounded geometry, together with some tameness condition on the growth of the Morse function $f$ near infinity. We prove that the cohomology of the Witten deformation $d_{Tf}$ acting on the complex of smooth $L^2$ forms is isomorphic to the cohomology of Thom-Smale complex of $f$ as well as the relative cohomology of a certain pair $(M, U)$ for sufficiently large $T$. We establish an Agmon estimate for eigenforms of the Witten Laplacian which plays an essential role in identifying these cohomol…
We treat the Witten operator on the de Rham complex with semiclassical heat kernel methods to derive the Poincaré-Hopf theorem and degenerate generalizations of it. Thereby, we see how the semiclassical asymptotics of the Witten heat kernel are related to approaches using the Thom form of Mathai and Quillen.
Let $M$ be a compact Riemannian manifold endowed with an isometric action of a compact Lie group. The method of the Witten deformation is used to compute the virtual representation-valued equivariant index of a transversally elliptic, first order differential operator on $M$. The multiplicities of irreducible representations in the index are expressed in terms of local quantities associated to the isolated singular points of an equivariant bundle map that is locally Clifford multiplication by a Killing vector field near these points.
In this paper, we prove logarithmic Sobolev inequalities and derive the Hamilton Harnack inequality for the heat semigroup of the Witten Laplacian on complete Riemannian manifolds equipped with $K$-super Perelman Ricci flow. We establish the $W$-entropy formula for the heat equation of the Witten Laplacian and prove a rigidity theorem on complete Riemannian manifolds satisfying the $CD(K, m)$ condition, and extend the $W$-entropy formula to time dependent Witten Laplacian on compact Riemannian manifolds with $(K, m)$-super Perelman Ricci flow, where $K\in \mathbb{R}$ and $m\in [n, \infty]$ are…
Consider a flat vector bundle F over compact Riemannian manifold M and let f be a self-indexing Morse function on M. Let g be a smooth Euclidean metric on F. Set g_t=exp(-2tf)g and let ρ(t) be the Ray-Singer analytic torsion of F associated to the metric g_t. Assuming that the vector field $grad f$ satisfies the Morse-Smale transversality conditions, we provide an asymptotic expansion for log(ρ(t)) for t\to\infty of the form a_0+a_1t+b log(t)+o(1). We present explicit formulae for coefficients a_0,a_1 and b. In particular, we show that b is a half integer.
In this survey paper, we give an overview of our recent works on the study of the $W$-entropy for the heat equation associated with the Witten Laplacian on super-Ricci flows and the Langevin deformation on Wasserstein space over Riemannian manifolds. Inspired by Perelman's seminal work on the entropy formula for the Ricci flow, we prove the $W$-entropy formula for the heat equation associated with the Witten Laplacian on $n$-dimensional complete Riemannian manifolds with the $CD(K, m)$-condition, and the $W$-entropy formula for the heat equation associated with the time dependent Witten Laplac…
In this paper, we prove the Li-Yau type Harnack inequality and Hamilton type dimension free Harnack inequality for the heat equation $\partial_t u=Lu$ associated with the time dependent Witten Laplacian on complete Riemannian manifolds equipped with a variant of the $(K, m)$-super Perelman Ricci flows and the $K$-super Perelman Ricci flows.
In this paper, we prove the characterization of the $(K, \infty)$-super Perelman Ricci flows by various functional inequalities and gradient estimate for the heat semigroup generated by the Witten Laplacian on manifolds equipped with time dependent metrics and potentials. As a byproduct, we derive the Hamilton type dimension free Harnack inequality on manifolds with $(K, \infty)$-super Perelman Ricci flows. Based on a new second order differential inequality on the Boltzmann-Shannon entropy for the heat equation of the Witten Laplacian, we introduce a new $W$-entropy quantity and prove its mon…
In this paper, we prove the Hamilton differential Harnack inequality for positive solutions to the heat equation of the Witten Laplacian on complete Riemannian manifolds with the $CD(-K, m)$-condition, where $m\in [n, \infty)$ and $K\geq 0$ are two constants. Moreover, we introduce the $W$-entropy and prove the $W$-entropy formula for the fundamental solution of the Witten Laplacian on complete Riemannian manifolds with the $CD(-K, m)$-condition and on compact manifolds equipped with $(-K, m)$-super Ricci flows.
Let F be a flat vector bundle over a compact Riemannian manifold M and let f be a Morse function. Let g be a smooth Euclidean metric on F, let g_t=e^{-2tf}g and let ρ(t) be the Ray-Singer analytic torsion of F associated to the metric g_t. Assuming that the vector field grad(f) satisfies the Morse-Smale transversality conditions, we provide an asymptotic expansion for \log(ρ(t)) for t\to +\infty of the form a_0+a_1t+b\log\left(\frac tπ\right)+o(1), where the coefficient b is a half-integer depending only on the Betti numbers of F. In the case where all the critical values of f are rational, we…
We use the theory of Berezin-Toeplitz operators of Ma and Marinescu to study the spaces of holomorphic sections of a prequantizing line bundle over compact Kähler manifolds under deformations of the complex structure. We show that the parallel transport in the induced vector bundle over the deformation space behaves like a Toeplitz operator, and compute its first coefficient. We then use this result to establish a semi-classical trace formula for the induced quantization of symplectic maps, and give an application to Witten's asymptotic expansion conjecture for the quantum representations of t…
In this paper, we develop a new approach to prove the $W$-entropy formula for the Witten Laplacian via warped product on Riemannian manifolds and give a natural geometric interpretation of a quantity appeared in the $W$-entropy formula. Then we prove the $W$-entropy formula for the Witten Laplacian on compact Riemannian manifolds with time dependent metrics and potentials, and derive the $W$-entropy formula for the backward heat equation associated with the Witten Laplacian on compact Riemannian manifolds equipped with Lott's modified Ricci flow. We also extend our results to complete Riemanni…
By a theorem of Mclean, the deformation space of an associative submanifold Y of an integrable G_2 manifold (M,ϕ) can be identified with the kernel of a Dirac operator D:Ω^{0}(ν) -->Ω^{0}(ν) on the normal bundle νof Y. Here, we generalize this to the non-integrable case, and also show that the deformation space becomes smooth after perturbing it by natural parameters, which corresponds to moving Y through `pseudo-associative' submanifolds. Infinitesimally, this corresponds to twisting the Dirac operator D --> D_{A} with connections A of ν. Furthermore, the normal bundles of the associative sub…
We initiate here the study of Gromov-Witten theory of locally conformally symplectic manifolds or $\lcs$ manifolds, $\lcsm$'s for short, which are a natural generalization of both contact and symplectic manifolds. We find that the main new phenomenon (relative to the symplectic case) is the potential existence of holomorphic sky catastrophes, an analogue for pseudo-holomorphic curves of sky catastrophes in dynamical systems originally discovered by Fuller. We are able to rule these out in some situations, particularly for certain $\lcs$ 4-folds, and as one application we show that in dimension…
