The Witten complex for algebraic curves with cone-like singularities (Q1022304)

The main purpose of this short paper is to generalize the Witten deformation to singular complex algebraic curves with cone-like singularities. The author also gives an analytic proof to the Morse inequalities. The contribution of the singular points to the Morse inequalities is closely related to the lack of essential self-adjointness of the Laplace operator (acting on smooth forms with compact support) in the presence of singularities. Moreover, it argued that the singular points contribute to the Morse inequalities in degree 1 and have to be counted with ``multiplicities''.