Equivariant holomorphic Morse inequalities. I: A heat kernel proof (Q1383662)

The authors prove Witten's equivariant holomorphic Morse inequalities [\textit{E. Witten}, Alg. Differ. Topol., Teubner Texte Math. 70, Teubner, Leipniz, 318-333 (1984; Zbl 0588.32009)] using heat kernel methods developed by Bismut and Lebeau. Assume that \(S^1\) acts holomorphically on a holomorphic vector bundle \(E\) over a compact Kähler manifold \(M\), and that the fixed point set \(F\) is nonempty and discrete. For any \(p\in F\), let \(\lambda_j^p\in\mathbb Z\setminus\{0\}\) be the weights of the \(S^1\)-action on \(T_pM\). Let the polarizing index \(n_p\) be the number of negative \(\lambda_j^p\). For \(\theta\in\mathbb R\), let \(E_p(\theta)\) and \(H^k(\theta)\) be the characters of the \(S^1\)-actions on \(E_p\) and on the \(k\)th twisted Dolbeault cohomology \(H^k(M,\mathcal O(E))\). Then Witten's strong equivariant holomorphic Morse inequalities say that \[ \begin{gathered} \sum_{p\in F}t^{n_p}E_p(\theta) \prod_{\lambda_k^p>0}{1\over 1-e^{-i\lambda_k^p\theta}} \prod_{\lambda_k^p<0}{e^{i\lambda_k^p\theta}\over 1-e^{i\lambda_k^p\theta}} =\sum_{k=0}^nt^kH^k(\theta)+(1+t)Q^+(\theta,t) ,\\ \sum_{p\in F}t^{n-n_p}E_p(\theta) \prod_{\lambda_k^p>0}{e^{i\lambda_k^p\theta}\over 1-e^{i\lambda_k^p\theta}} \prod_{\lambda_k^p<0}{1\over 1-e^{-i\lambda_k^p\theta}} =\sum_{k=0}^nt^kH^k(\theta)+(1+t)Q^-(\theta,t) ,\\ \end{gathered} \] where \(Q^+(\theta,t)\) and \(Q^-(\theta, t)\) are polynomials in \(t\) whose coefficients are nonnegative integer linear combinations of characters of \(S^1\). The strong equivariant holomorphic Morse inequalities give bounds on the multiplicities of the weights occuring in \(H^k(\theta)\). They imply the corresponding weak inequalities as well as the Atiyah-Bott fixed point formula (for \(t=-1\)). In a separate paper [\textit{S. Wu}, Equivariant holomorphic Morse inequalities. II: Torus and non-Abelian group actions, Math.\ Sci.\ Res.\ Inst., preprint No. 1996-013, dg-ga/9602008 (1996)], the corresponding inequalities for actions of larger groups are established. It is also shown that the Kähler condition is necessary for the strong inequalities.