We present a short analytic proof of the equality between the analytic and combinatorial torsion. We use the same approach as in the proof given by Burghelea, Friedlander and Kappeler, but avoid using the difficult Mayer-Vietoris type formula for the determinants of elliptic operators. Instead, we provide a direct way of analyzing the behaviour of the determinant of the Witten deformation of the Laplacian. In particular, we show that this determinant can be written as a sum of two terms, one of which has an asymptotic expansion with computable coefficients and the other is very simple (no zeta-function regularization is involved in its definition).
We generalize a Cheeger-Müller type theorem for flat, unitary bundles on infinite covering spaces over manifolds-with-boundary, proven by Burghelea, Friedlander and Kappeller arXiv:dg-ga/9510010 [math.DG]. Employing recent anomaly results by Brüning, Ma and Zhang, we prove an analogous statement for a general flat bundle that is only required to have a unimodular restriction to the boundary.
We prove the equality of the $L^2$-analytic torsion and the intersection R torsion of the even dimensional finite metric cone over an odd dimensional compact manifold.
We will show a theorem of a type of Cheeger and Muller for a noncompact complete hyperbolic threefold of finite vulume. As an application we will compute a special value of Ruelle L-function at the origin for a unitary local system which is cuspidal.
In this paper, we provide a concrete interpretation of equivariant Reidemeister torsion and demonstrate that Bismut-Zhang's equivariant Cheeger-Müller theorem simplifies considerably when applied to locally symmetric spaces. In a companion paper, this allows us to extend recent results on torsion cohomology growth and torsion cohomology comparison for arithmetic locally symmetric spaces an equivariant setting.
We prove that the anomaly term appearing in the ratio between Reidemeister torsion and analytic torsion for a space with a conical singularity vanishes in the smooth case. Moreover, we show that such anomaly term is non trivial for the cone over a torus.
We study the spectrum and heat kernel of the Hodge Laplacian with coefficients in a flat bundle on a closed manifold degenerating to a manifold with wedge singularities. Provided the Hodge Laplacians in the fibers of the wedge have an appropriate spectral gap, we give uniform constructions of the resolvent and heat kernel on suitable manifolds with corners. When the wedge manifold and the base of the wedge are odd dimensional, this is used to obtain a Cheeger-Müller theorem relating analytic torsion with the Reidemeister torsion of the natural compactification by a manifold with boundary.
In this paper we prove the Cheeger-Müller theorem for $L^2$-analytic torsion form under the assumption that there exists a fiberwise Morse function and the Novikov-Shubin invariant is positive.
We prove an extension of the Cheeger-Müller theorem to spaces with isolated conical singularities: the $L^2$-analytic torsion coincides with the Ray-Singer intersection torsion on an even dimensional space, and they are trivial, while the ratio is non trivial on an odd dimensional space, and the anomaly depends only on the link of the singularities. For this aim, we develop on one side a combinatorial cellular theory whose homology coincides with the intersection homology of Gregory and Macpherson, and where the Ray-Singer intersection torsion is well defined. On the other side, we elaborate t…
We consider a fibration with compact fiber together with a unitarily flat complex vector bundle over the total space. Under the assumption that the fiberwise cohomology admits a filtration with unitary factors, we construct Bismut-Lott analytic torsion classes. The analytic torsion classes obtained satisfy Igusa's and Ohrt's axiomatization of higher torsion invariants. As a consequence, we obtain a higher version of the Cheeger-Müller/Bismut-Zhang theorem: for trivial flat line bundles, the Bismut-Lott analytic torsion classes coincide with the Igusa-Klein higher topological torsions up to a n…
Using deep analytic methods, Cheeger and Gromov showed that for any smooth (4k-1)-manifold there is a universal bound for the von Neumann $L^2$ $ρ$-invariants associated to arbitrary regular covers. We present a proof of the existence of a universal bound for topological (4k-1)-manifolds, using $L^2$-signatures of bounding 4k-manifolds. For 3-manifolds, we give explicit linear universal bounds in terms of triangulations, Heegaard splittings, and surgery descriptions respectively. We show that our explicit bounds are asymptotically optimal. As an application, we give new lower bounds of the com…
We present a proof of Milnor conjecture in dimension 3 based on Cheeger-Colding theory on limit spaces of manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded below. It is different from [Liu] that relies on minimal surface theory.
We give a quite detailed overview on the proof of the Cheeger-Colding-Gromoll splitting theorem in the abstract framework of spaces with Riemannian Ricci curvature bounded from below.
We prove equality between the renormalized Ray-Singer analytic torsion and the intersection R-torsion on a Witt-manifold with cusps, up to an error term determined explicitly by the Betti numbers of the cross section of the cusp and the intersection R-torsion of a model cone. In the first step of the proof we compute explicitly the renormalized Ray-Singer analytic torsion of a model cusp in general dimension and without the Witt-condition. In the second step we establish a gluing formula for renormalized Ray-Singer analytic torsion on a general class of non-compact manifolds in any dimension t…
The purpose of this paper is to give a proof of the real part of the Riemann-Roch-Grothendieck theorem for complex flat vector bundles at the differential form level in the even dimensional fiber case. The proof is, roughly speaking, an application of the local family index theorem for a perturbed twisted spin Dirac operator, a variational formula of the Bismut-Cheeger eta form without the kernel bundle assumption in the even dimensional fiber case, and some properties of the Cheeger-Chern-Simons class of complex flat vector bundle.
We associate determinant lines to objects of the extended abelian category built out of a von Neumann category with a trace. Using this we suggest constructions of the combinatorial and the analytic L^2 torsions which, unlike the work of the previous authors, requires no additional assumptions; in particular we do not impose the determinant class condition. The resulting torsions are elements of the determinant line of the extended L^2 cohomology. Under the determinant class assumption the L^2 torsions of this paper specialize to the invariants studied in our previous work. Applying a recent t…
We establish a Cheeger-Muller theorem for unimodular representations satisfying a Witt condition on a noncompact manifold with cusps. This class of spaces includes all non-compact hyperbolic spaces of finite volume, but we do not assume that the metric has constant curvature nor that the link of the cusp is a torus. We use renormalized traces in the sense of Melrose to define the analytic torsion and we relate it to the intersection R-torsion of Dar of the natural compactification to a stratified space. Our proof relies on our recent work on the behavior of the Hodge Laplacian spectrum on a cl…
