Combinatorial invariants computing the Ray-Singer analytic torsion

DOI10.1016/S0926-2245(96)00031-9MaRDI QIDQ1924846zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Publication date 26 November 1996

Published in Differential Geometry and its Applications (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/dg-ga/9606014

analytic torsion combinatorial torsion Poincaré-Reidemeister metric Ray-Singer metric

Simple homotopy type, Whitehead torsion, Reidemeister-Franz torsion, etc. (57Q10) Determinants and determinant bundles, analytic torsion (58J52)

Abstract: It is shown that for any piecewise-linear closed orientable manifold of odd dimension there exists an invariantly defined metric on the determinant line of cohomology with coefficients in an arbitrary flat bundle E over the manifold (E is not required to be unimodular). The construction of this metric (called Poincare - Reidemeister metric) is purely combinatorial; it combines the standard Reidemeister type construction with Poincare duality. The main result of the paper states that the Poincare-Reidemeister metric computes combinatorially the Ray-Singer metric. It is shown also that the Ray-Singer metrics on some relative determinant lines can be computed combinatorially (including the even-dimensional case) in terms of metrics determined by correspondences.

Review text

It is shown that for any piecewise-linear closed orientable manifold \(K\) of odd dimension there exists an invariantly defined metric on the determinant line of cohomology \(\text{det} (H^* (K; E))\), where \(E\) is an arbitrary flat bundle over \(K\) (here \(E\) is not required to be unimodular). The construction of this metric (called Poincaré-Reidemeister metric) is purely combinatorial; it combines the standard Reidemeister's construction with the Poincaré duality. The main properties of the Poincaré-Reidemeister metric consist in the following: (a) the Poincaré-Reidemeister metric can be computed starting from any polyhedral cell decomposition of the manifold in purely combinatorial terms; (b) the Poincaré-Reidemeister metric coincides with the Reidemeister metric when the latter is correctly defined (i.e. when the bundle \(E\) is unitary or unimodular); (c) The construction of Ray and Singer, which uses zeta-function regularized determinants of Laplacians, produces the metric on the determinant of cohomology, which coincides (via the de Rham isomorphism) with the Poincaré-Reidemeister metric. This is the main result of the paper, showing that the Poincaré-Reidemeister metric computes combinatorially the Ray-Singer metric. (d) The Poincaré-Reidemeister metric behaves well with respect to natural correspondences between determinant lines which are discussed in the paper. It is shown also that the Ray-Singer metrics on some relative determinant lines can be computed combinatorially (including the even-dimensional case) in terms of the metrics determined by correspondences.

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