\(L^2\)-torsion of hyperbolic manifolds of finite volume (Q1305432)

Let \(\bar M\) be a compact connected odd-dimensional manifold with boundary whose interior \(M\) admits a complete hyperbolic metric of finite volume. The main result of this paper is that the \(L^2\)-topological torsion of \(\bar M\) is equal to the \(L^2\)-analytic torsion of \(M\). Since the quotient of the \(L^2\)-analytic torsion by the volume of \(M\) is a nonzero constant depending only on the dimension [\textit{E. Hess} and \textit{T. Schick}, Manuscr. Math. 97, No. 3, 329-334 (1998; Zbl 0940.58022)], the same is now true for the \(L^2\)-topological torsion. As an application, the authors get an explicit formula for the \(L^2\)-topological torsion of any compact irreducible \(3\)-manifold \(N\) that admits a geometric JSJT-decomposition provided \(N\) has infinite fundamental group and the boundary of \(N\) is either empty or consists of incompressible tori. Specifically, up to a constant multiple, the \(L^2\)-topological torsion of \(N\) is equal to the sum of the volumes of the hyperbolic pieces in the JSJT-decomposition. An appendix contains examples showing that if the metric is not a product near the boundary, then in general the analytic and topological torsions are not equal, even if the boundary has zero Euler characteristic. Thus, the Cheeger-Müller theorem cannot be extended to manifolds with boundary.