Comparison of the refined analytic and the Burghelea-Haller torsions (Q2477563): Difference between revisions

The authors specialize on a comparison between their refined analytic torsion with the Burghelea-Haller torsion (another refinement of the Ray-Singer torsion). Let \((C^\bullet,\partial): 0\to C^0\mathop{\to}\limits^{\partial}C^1\mathop{\to}\limits^{\partial} \cdots\mathop{\to}\limits^{\partial}C^d\to 0\) be a complex finite dimensional \({\mathbb C}\)-vector space of odd length \(d=2r-1\), and \(\Gamma:C^\bullet\to C^\bullet\) a chiriality operator, i.e., an involution such that \(\Gamma(C^j)=C^{d-j}\), \(j=0,\dots,d\). Let \(\text{Det}(C^\bullet)\equiv\bigotimes_{0\leq j\leq d}\text{Det}(C^j)^{(-1)^j}\), where \(\text{Det}(C^j)^{-1}\equiv \Hom(C^j;{\mathbb C})\equiv (C^j)^*\). \(\Gamma\) induces the mapping \(\text{Det}(C^j)\to \text{Det}(C^{d-j)}\). There exists an isomorphism \(\text{Det}(C^\bullet)\to \text{Det}(H^\bullet)\), where \(H^\bullet\) is the cohomology of the complex \((C^\bullet,\partial)\). The Braverman-Kappeler refined torsion of the pair \((C^\bullet,\partial)\) is the element \(\rho_\Gamma\equiv\phi_{C^\bullet}(c_\Gamma)\in \text{Det}(H^\bullet)\), where \(\phi_{C^\bullet}\) is an isomorphism \(\text{Det}(C^\bullet)\cong \text{Det}(H^\bullet)\) refining the standard one and similar to the one considered by Turaev. Furthermore, \(c_\Gamma\) is a fixed element of \(\text{Det}(C^\bullet)\). When \((M,g)\) is a smooth closed oriented Riemannian manifold of odd dimension \(d=2r-1\) and \((E,\nabla)\) is a flat vector bundle over \(M\), the Braverman-Kappeler refined analytic torsion \(\rho_{\text{an}}\) is a refined torsion of a suitable pair \((C^\bullet,\partial)\) canonically built on the structure \((E,\nabla,g)\) and it results that \(\rho_{\text{an}}\in \text{Det}(H^{\bullet}(M,E))\). \(\rho_{\text{an}}\) can be considered as an analogue of the refinement of the Reidermeister torsion due to Turaev and, in a more general context, to Farber-Turaev. \(\rho_{\text{an}}\) carries information about the Ray-Singer metric and about the \(\eta\)-invariant of the odd signature operator associated to \(\nabla\) and a Riemannian metric on \(M\). In particular, if \(\nabla\) is a Hermitian connection, then the Ray-Singer norm of \(\rho_{\text{an}}(\nabla)\) is equal to \(1\). \(\rho_{\text{an}}\) depends holomorphically on \(\nabla\). Using this fact the authors extend the classical Cheeger-Müller theorem about the equality between the Ray-Singer and Reidermeister torsions. In fact, they calculate the ratio between the refined analytic torsion and the Farber-Turaev torsion up to a factor, which is locally constant on the space of flat connections and is equal to one on every connected component which contains a Hermitian connection. The main result of this paper is a theorem establishing a relationship between the refined analytic torsion and the Burghelea-Haller quadratic form, that is a complex valued quadratic form on \(\text{Det}(H^\bullet(M,E))\), which depends holomorphically on the flat connection \(\nabla\) and is related to the Ray-Singer torsion and Farber-Turaev torsion. This comparison is further considered in a longer paper by the same authors [J. Differ. Geom. 78, No. 2, 193--267 (2008; Zbl 1147.58034), see below].