The L^2-torsion is an invariant defined for compact L^2-acyclic manifolds of determinant class, for example odd dimensional hyperbolic manifolds. It was introduced by John Lott and Varghese Mathai and computed for hyperbolic manifolds in low dimensions.
In this paper we show that the L^2-torsion of hyperbolic manifolds of arbitrary odd dimension does not vanish. This was conjectured by J. Lott and W. Lueck.
Some concrete values are computed and an estimate of their growth with the dimension is given.
In this paper, we prove an equality which involves Reidemeister torsion, complex volume, and Zograf infinite product for hyperbolic 3-manifolds with cusps.
We study the analytic torsion of odd-dimensional hyperbolic orbifolds $Γ\backslash \mathbb{H}^{2n+1}$, depending on a representation of $Γ$. Our main goal is to understand the asymptotic behavior of the analytic torsion with respect to sequences of representations associated to rays of highest weights.
We prove that for certain sequences of hyperbolic three--manifolds with cusps which converge to hyperbolic three--space in a weak ("Benjamini-Schramm") sense and certain coefficient systems the regularized analytic torsion approximates the $L^2$-torsion of the universal cover under an additional hypothesis. We also prove an asymptotic equality between the former and some Reidemeister torsion of the truncated manifolds.
On an odd-dimensional oriented hyperbolic manifold of finite volume with strongly acyclic coefficient systems, we derive a formula relating analytic torsion with the Reidemeister torsion of the Borel-Serre compactification of the manifold. In a companion paper, this formula is used to derive exponential growth of torsion in cohomology of arithmetic groups.
Inspired by the work of Boris Vertman on refined analytic torsion for manifolds with boundary, in this paper we extend the construction of the Cappell-Miller analytic torsion to manifolds with boundary. We also compare it with the refined analytic torsion on manifolds with boundary. As a byproduct of the gluing formula for refined analytic torsion and the comparison theorem for the Cappell-Miller analytic torsion and the refined analytic torsion, we establish the gluing formula for the Cappell-Miller analytic torsion in the case that the Hermitian metric is flat.
For a non-compact hyperbolic 3-manifold with cusps we prove an explicit formula that relates the regularized analytic torsion associated to the even symmetric powers of the standard representation of SL_2(C) to the corresponding Reidemeister torsion. Our proof rests on an expression of the analytic torsion in terms of special values of Ruelle zeta functions as well as on recent work of Pere Menal-Ferrer and Joan Porti.
We prove a formula relating the analytic torsion and Reidemeister torsion on manifolds with boundary in the general case when the metric is not necessarily a product near the boundary. The product case has been established by W. Luck and S. M. Vishik. We find that the extra term that comes in here in the nonproduct case is the transgression of the Euler class in the even dimensional case and a slightly more mysterious term involving the second fundamental form of the boundary and the curvature tensor of the manifold in the odd dimensional case.
We classify 7-dimensional cocalibrated $\G_2$-manifolds with parallel characteristic torsion and non-abelian holonomy. All these spaces admit a metric connection $\nabla^{\mathrm{c}}$ with totally skew-symmetric torsion and a spinor field $Ψ_1$ solving the equations in the common sector of type II superstring theory. There exist $\G_2$-structures with parallel characteristic torsion that are not naturally reductive.
In this paper, we extend Su-Zhang's Cheeger-Mueller type theorem for symmetric bilinear torsions to manifolds with boundary in the case that the Riemannian metric and the non-degenerate symmetric bilinear form are of product structure near the boundary. Our result also extends Bruening-Ma's Cheeger-Mueller type theorem for Ray-Singer metric on manifolds with boundary to symmetric bilinear torsions in product case. We also compare it with the Ray-Singer analytic torsion on manifolds with boundary.
In this article, we study Hermitian manifolds whose Bismut-Strominger connection has parallel torsion tensor, which will be called {\em Bismut torsion parallel manifolds,} or {\em BTP} manifolds for short. We obtain a necessary and sufficient condition characterizing this class in terms of the curvature tensor. In particular, Bismut flat or Bismut Kähler-like manifolds are {\em BTP} manifolds, known by our earlier results. We also obtain structural results for non-balanced {\em BTP} manifolds, and classification theorems for non-balanced {\em BTP} threefolds and balanced {\em BTP} threefolds.
We develop a notion of Einstein manifolds with skew torsion on compact, orientable Riemannian manifolds of dimension four. We prove an analogue of the Hitchin-Thorpe inequality and study the case of equality. We use the link with self-duality to study the moduli space of 1-instantons on the 4-sphere for a family of metrics defined by Bonneau.
We study 5-dimensional Riemannian manifolds that admit an almost contact metric structure. We classify these structures by their intrinsic torsion and review the literature in terms of this scheme. Moreover, we determine necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of metric connections with vectorial, totally skew-symmetric or traceless cyclic torsion that are compatible with the almost contact metric structure. Finally, we examine explicit examples of almost contact metric 5-manifolds from this perspective.
A natural connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion on almost contact manifolds with B-metric is constructed. The class of these manifolds, where the considered connection exists, is determined. Some curvature properties for this connection, when the corresponding curvature tensor has the properties of the curvature tensor for the Levi-Civita connection and the torsion tensor is parallel, are obtained.
We find geometric conditions on a four-dimensional Hermitian manifold endowed with a metric connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion under which the complex structure is a harmonic map from the manifold into its twistor space considered with a natural family of Riemannian metrics defined by means of the metric and the given connection on the base manifold.
We study the intrinsic torsion of almost quaternion-Hermitian manifolds via the exterior algebra. In particular, we show how it is determined by particular three-forms formed from simple combinations of the exterior derivatives of the local Kaehler forms. This gives a practical method to compute the intrinsic torsion and is applied in a number of examples. In addition we find simple characterisations of HKT and QKT geometries entirely in the exterior algebra and compute how the intrinsic torsion changes under a twist construction.
This paper is a survey of results obtained by the authors on the geometry of connections with totally skew-symmetric torsion on the following manifolds: almost complex manifolds with Norden metric, almost contact manifolds with B-metric and almost hypercomplex manifolds with Hermitian and anti-Hermitian metric.
For d=2n+1 a positive odd integer, we consider sequences of arithmetic subgroups of SO_0(d,1) and Spin(d,1) yielding corresponding hyperbolic manifolds of finite volume and show that, under appropriate and natural assumptions, the torsion of the associated cohomology groups grows exponentially.
In the present work we consider an almost complex manifold with Norden metric (i.e. a metric with respect to which the almost complex structure is an antiisometry). On such a manifold we study a linear connection preserving the almost complex structure and the metric and having a totally skew-symmetric torsion tensor. We consider the case when the manifold admits a connection with parallel totally skew-symmetric torsion and the case when such connection has a Kaehler curvature tensor. We get necessary and sufficient conditions for an isotropic Kaehler manifold with Norden metric.
For an almost contact metric manifold $N$, we find conditions for which either the total space of an $S^1$-bundle over $N$ or the Riemannian cone over $N$ admits a strong Kähler with torsion (SKT) structure. In this way we construct new 6-dimensional SKT manifolds. Moreover, we study the geometric structure induced on a hypersurface of an SKT manifold, and use such structures to construct new SKT manifolds via appropriate evolution equations. Hyper-Kähler with torsion (HKT) structures on the total space of an $S^1$-bundle over manifolds with three almost contact structures are also studied.
University of Sofia, Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics（索非亚大学数学与信息学院）；Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences（保加利亚科学院数学与信息研究所）
We study the volume of compact Riemannian manifolds which are Einstein with respect to a metric connection with (parallel) skew-torsion. We provide a result for the sign of the first variation of the volume in terms of the corresponding scalar curvature. This generalizes a result of M. Ville, related with the first variation of the volume on a compact Einstein manifold.
We study the geometry of PQKT-connections. We find conditions to the existence of a PQKT-connection and prove that if it exists it is unique. We show that PQKT geometry persist in a conformal class of metrics.
For an odd-dimensional oriented hyperbolic manifold with cusps and strongly acyclic coefficient systems we define the Reidemeister torsion of the Borel-Serre compactification of the manifold using bases of cohomology classes defined via Eisenstein series by the method of Harder. In the main result of this paper we relate this combinatorial torsion to the regularized analytic torsion. Together with results on the asymptotic behaviour of the regularized analytic torsion, established previously, this should have applications to study the growth of torsion in the cohomology of arithmetic groups. O…
Suppose $\bar{M}$ is a compact connected odd-dimensional manifold with boundary, whose interior $M$ comes with a complete hyperbolic metric of finite volume. We will show that the $L^2$-topological torsion of $\bar{M}$ and the $L^2$-analytic torsion of the Riemannian manifold $M$ are equal. In particular, the $L^2$-topological torsion of $\bar{M}$ is proportional to the hyperbolic volume of $M$, with a constant of proportionality which depends only on the dimension and which is known to be nonzero in dimension 3, 5 and 7. In dimension 3 this proves the conjecture Of Lott and Lueck which gives …
The space of the torsion (0,3)-tensors of the linear connections on almost contact manifolds with B-metric is decomposed in 15 orthogonal and invariant subspaces with respect to the action of the structure group. Three known connections, preserving the structure, are characterized regarding this classification.
There is considered a connection with skew symmetric torsion on a quasi-Kähler manifold with Norden metric. Some necessary and sufficient conditions are derived for the corresponding curvature tensor to be Kählerian. In the case when this tensor is Kählerian, some relations are obtained between its scalar curvature and the scalar curvature of other curvature tensors. Conditions are given for the considered manifolds to be isotropic-Kähler.
In 1984, Gauduchon considered the functional of $L^2$-norm of his torsion $1$-form on a compact Hermitian manifold. He obtained the Euler-Lagrange equation for this functional, and showed that in dimension $2$ the critical metrics must be balanced (namely with vanishing torsion $1$-form). In this note we extend his result to higher dimensions, and show that critical metrics are balanced in all dimensions. We also consider the $L^2$-norm of the full Chern torsion, and show by examples that there are critical points of this functional that are not Kähler.
On a main class of the almost contact manifolds with B-metric, it is described the family of the linear connections preserving the manifold's structures by 4 parameters. In this family there are determined the canonical-type connection and the connection with zero parameters.
Generalized Berwald manifolds are Finsler manifolds admitting linear connections such that the parallel transports preserve the Finslerian length of tangent vectors. By the fundamental result of the theory \cite{V5} such a linear connection must be metrical with respect to the averaged Riemannian metric given by integration of the Riemann-Finsler metric on the indicatrix hypersurfaces. Therefore the linear connection is uniquely determined by its torsion tensor. If the torsion is zero then we have a classical Berwald manifolds. Otherwise the torsion is a strange data we need to express in term…
Almost hypercomplex manifolds with Hermitian and anti-Hermitian metrics are considered. A linear connection $D$ is introduced such that the structure of these manifolds is parallel with respect to D. Of special interest is the class of the locally conformally equivalent manifolds of the manifolds with covariantly constant almost complex structures and the case when the torsion of D is D-parallel. Curvature properties of these manifolds are studied. An example of 4-dimensional manifolds in the considered basic class is constructed and characterized.
The refined analytic torsion, defined by M. Braverman and T. Kappeler on closed manifolds, can be viewed as a refinement of the Ray-Singer torsion, since it is a canonical choice of an element with Ray-Singer norm one, in case of unitary representations. The complex phase of the refinement is given by the rho-invariant of the odd-signature operator. Unfortunately there seems to be no canonical way to extend the construction of Braverman and Kappeler to compact manifolds with boundary. In particular a gluing formula seems to be out of reach. We propose a different refinement of analytic torsion…
We consider the unique Hermitian connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion on a Hermitian manifold. We prove that if the torsion is parallel and the holonomy is Sp(n)U(1), considered as a subgroup of U(2n) x U(1), then the manifold is locally isomorphic to the twistor space of a quaternionic Kaehler manifold with positive scalar curvature. If the manifold is complete, then it is globally isomorphic to such a twistor space.
We study the analytic torsion of the cone over an orientable odd dimensional compact connected Riemannian manifold W. We prove that the logarithm of the analytic torsion of the cone decomposes as the sum of the logarithm of the root of the analytic torsion of the boundary of the cone, plus a topological term, plus a further term that is a rational linear combination of local Riemannian invariants of the boundary. We also prove that this last term coincides with the anomaly boundary term appearing in the Cheeger Muller theorem for a manifold with boundary, according to Bruning and Ma, either in…
We study almost Kähler manifolds whose curvature tensor satisfies the second curvature condition of Gray (shortly ${\cal{AK}}_2$). This condition is interpreted in terms of the first canonical Hermitian connection. It turns out that this condition forces the torsion of this connection to be parallel in directions orthogonal to the Kähler nullity of the almost complex structure. We prove a local structure result for ${\cal{AK}}_2$ manifolds, showing that the basic pieces are manifolds with parallel torsion and special almost Kähler manifolds, a class generalizing, to some algebraic extent, the …
In this paper we show that the Ray-Singer complex analytic torsion is trivial for even dimensional Calabi-Yau manifolds. Then we define the quaternionic analytic torsion for quaternionic manifolds and prove that they are metric independent. In dimension four, the quaternionic analytic torsion equals to the self-dual analytic torsion. For higher dimensional manifolds, the self-dual analytic torsion is a conformal invariant.
We give a surgery formula for the torsions and Seiberg-Witten invariants associated with $Spin^c$-structures on 3-manifolds. We use the technique of Reidemeister-type torsions and their refinements.
Fried's conjecture is concerned with the behavior of dynamical zeta functions at the origin. For compact hyperbolic manifolds, Fried proved that for an orthogonal acyclic representation of the fundamental group, the twisted Ruelle zeta function is holomorphic at $s=0$ and its value at $s=0$ equals the Ray-Singer analytic torsion. He also established a more general result for orthogonal representations, which are not acyclic. The purpose of the present paper is to extend Fried's result to arbitrary finite dimensional representations of the fundamental group. The Ray-Singer analytic torsion is r…
We propose a definition for analytic torsion of the contact complex on contact manifolds. We show it coincides with Ray-Singer torsion on any 3-dimensional CR Seifert manifold equipped with a unitary representation. In this particular case we compute it and relate it to dynamical properties of the Reeb flow. In fact the whole spectral torsion function we consider may be interpreted on CR Seifert manifolds as a purely dynamical function through Selberg-type trace formulae.
We derive sufficient conditions for the vanishing of plurigenera, $p_m(J), m>0$, on compact (l|k)-strong, $ω^l\wedge \partial\bar\partial ω^k=0$, Kaehler manifolds with torsion. In particular, we show that the plurigenera of compact (l|k)-strong manifolds, k<n-1, for which the holonomy of the unique Hermitian connection with skew-symmetric torsion is contained in SU(n) vanish. As a consequence all generalized k-Gauduchon manifolds with holonomy of the Hermitian connection with skew-symmetric torsion contained in SU(n) do not admit holomorphic (n,0) forms. Furthermore we show that all conformal…
On an open manifold, the spaces of metrics or connections of bounded geometry, respectively, split into an uncountable number of components. We show that for a pair of metrics or connections, belonging to the same component, relative $ζ$-functions, determinants, torsion for pairs of generalized Dirac operators are well defined.
We consider the Yang-Mills flow on hyperbolic 3-space. The gauge connection is constructed from the frame-field and (not necessarily compatible) spin connection components. The fixed points of this flow include zero Yang-Mills curvature configurations, for which the spin connection has zero torsion and the associated Riemannian geometry is one of constant curvature. Perturbations to the fixed point corresponding to hyperbolic 3-space can be expressed as a linear superposition of distinct modes, some of which are exponentially growing along the flow. The growing modes imply the divergence of th…
We extend the definition of analytic and Reidemeister torsion from closed compact Riemannian manifolds to compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary $(M, \partial M)$, given a flat bundle $\Cal F$ of $\Cal A$-Hilbert modules of finite type and a decomposition of the boundary $\partial M =\partial_- M \cup \partial_+ M$ into disjoint components. In particular we extend the $L-2$ analytic and Reidemeister torsions to compact manifolds with boundary. If the system $(M,\partial_-M, \partial_+M, \Cal F)$ is of determinant class we compute the quotient of the analytic and the Reidemeister torsion an…
The geometry arising from Michelson & Strominger's study of N=4B supersymmetric quantum mechanics with superconformal D(2,1;alpha)-symmetry is a hyperKaehler manifold with torsion (HKT) together with a special homothety. It is shown that different parameters alpha are related via changes in potentials for the HKT target spaces. For alpha not 0 or -1, we describe how each such HKT 4m-manifold M is derived from a space N of dimension 4m-4 which is quaternionic Kaehler with torsion and carries an Abelian instanton.
This paper is devoted to the first systematic investigation of manifolds that are Einstein for a connection with skew symmetric torsion. We derive the Einstein equation from a variational principle and prove that, for parallel torsion, any Einstein manifold with skew torsion has constant scalar curvature; and if it is complete of positive scalar curvature, it is necessarily compact and it has finite first fundamental group. The longest part of the paper is devoted to the systematic construction of large families of examples. We discuss when a Riemannian Einstein manifold can be Einstein with s…
We construct hyperbolic integer homology 3-spheres where the injectivity radius is arbitrarily large for nearly all points of the manifold. As a consequence, there exists a sequence of closed hyperbolic 3-manifolds which Benjamini-Schramm converge to H^3 whose normalized Ray-Singer analytic torsions do not converge to the L^2-analytic torsion of H^3. This contrasts with the work of Abert et. al. who showed that Benjamini-Schramm convergence forces convergence of normalized betti numbers. Our results shed light on a conjecture of Bergeron and Venkatesh on the growth of torsion in the homology o…
We give an explicit formula for the $L^2$ analytic torsion of the finite metric cone over an oriented compact connected Riemannian manifold. We provide an interpretation of the different factors appearing in this formula. We prove that the analytic torsion of the cone is the finite part of the limit obtained collapsing one of the boundaries, of the ratio of the analytic torsion of the frustum to a regularising factor. We show that the regularising factor comes from the set of the non square integrable eigenfunctions of the Laplace Beltrami operator on the cone.
