An extension of a theorem by Cheeger and Müller to spaces with isolated conical singularities (Q5919055): Difference between revisions

In this long technical paper the author proves a generalization of the Cheeger-Müller theorem (the equality of the Reidemeister or topological torsion, and the Ray-Singer or analytical torsion on compact smooth manifolds) for manifolds with conical singularities. Roughly speaking a compact \textit{Riemannian \(n\)-manifold with isolated conical singularities} is a usual compact smooth \(n\)-manifold carrying a Riemannian metric except finitely many isolated points around which the manifold \(X\) has the form of an open cone over a smooth \((n-1)\)-manifold \(L\) while the metric \(g\) looks like \(\dot{d} r^2+r^2g_L\) where \(0\leqq r<\delta\) is the radial coordinate along the cone (such that \(r=0\) corresponds to its singular point) and \(g_L\) is a fixed Riemannian metric on \(L\). One can talk about \textit{flat unitary bundles} over these type of singular spaces which are simply defined to be usual unitary flat vector bundles over the smooth part. Then one can introduce in a rather technical way the associated appropriately generalized Reidemeister and Ray-Singer torsions (see Sections 2.4-2.10 in the article). The main result of the paper, Theorem 2.11, can be summarized as follows. Let \((X,g)\) be a compact Riemannian \(n\)-manifold with isolated conical singularities and let \(F\) be a unitary flat vector bundle over it. Assume that the pair \(((X,g),F)\) satisfies two technical conditions: (i) \((X,g)\) is a Witt space with respect to \(F\) (which in the case when \(n\) is even means nothing) and (ii) the associated \(F\)-valued Hodge-de Rham Laplacians acting on the spaces of compactly supported sections of \(F\)-valued \(p\)-forms are essentially self-adjoint (see Section 2.3 in the article for more details on these two conditions). If \(n\) is even then also assume that \(X\) is oriented. Then the statement is that the (generalized) Reidemeister and Ray-Singer torsions of \(((X,g),F)\) coincide. If the number of singular points in \((X,g)\) is zero i.e. \((X,g)\) is compact and smooth then this theorem reduces to the standard Cheeger-Müller theorem.