The Poincaré lemma for variations of polarized Hodge structure (Q1093690)

Let X be a non-singular compact Kähler manifold and let \(X^*\) be the complement of a normally crossing hypersurface. Then, for any polarizable variation of Hodge structure H on \(X^*\), the k-th cohomology \(H^ k(X;^{\pi}H)\) has a canonical Hodge structure. Here \(^{\pi}H\) is the minimal extension of H, i.e., a unique perverse sheaf on X such that it is an extension of H and that it does not have either non-zero sub- perverse sheaf or a perverse quotient supported in \(X-X^*\). - The outline of the proof is the following. Take a suitable Kähler metric on \(X^*\) so that it is complete, and hence there is no contribution from the boundary \(X-X^*\) in performing integration by parts. The problem is reduced to show that \(H^ k(X;^{\pi}H)\) is isomorphic to \(H^ k_{(2)}(X^*;H):=\) the k-th \(L^ 2\)-cohomology with coefficient H. Let \({\mathcal L}^{(k)}(H)\) be the sheaf on X associated to the presheaf: \[ X\supset U\;\mapsto \;\{u\in L^ k_{(2)}(X^*\cap U;H);\quad du\in L^{k+1}_{(2)}(X^*\cap U;H)\} \] where \(L^ k_{(2)}\) means the space of \(L^ 2\)-sections of k-forms. Then \(H^ k_{(2)}(X^*;H)=H^ k(\Gamma (X;{\mathcal L}^{\bullet}(H))=H^ k(X;{\mathcal L}^{\bullet}(H))\). Thus the problem is to prove that \({\mathcal L}^{\bullet}(H)\simeq^{\pi}H\), which is a local problem. This means that we may assume that \(X=\Delta^ n\) and \(X*=\Delta^{*n}\) where \(\Delta\) is the open unit disc in the complex plane and \(\Delta^*=\Delta -\{0\}\). The authors prove \({\mathcal L}^{\bullet}(H)\simeq^{\pi}H\) in this case.