Quaternionic analytic torsion. (Q1408807)

The authors define an equivariant quaternionic analytic torsion for anti-self-dual vector bundles on quaternionic Kähler manifolds, using ideas by Leung and Yi by constructing a Laplace operator associated to a complex defined by Salamon. This torsion is computed for all known quaternionic Kähler manifolds of positive curvature, i.e., for the quaternionic homogeneous spaces of compact type, with respect to the action of any element of the associated Lie group and any equivariant anti-self-dual vector bundle. For the real analytic torsion, this computation led to a classification of quotients of some odd-dimensional symmetric spaces of compact type up to homeomorphism. For the holomorphic torsion, this computation provided evidence for the fixed point formula. In combination with the fixed point formula in Arakelov geometry, it gives a new proof of the Jantzen sum formula classifying the lattice representations of Chevalley group schemes, except for the root systems \(G_2\), \(F_4\), \(E_8\). The authors comment briefly on the special case of hyper-Kähler manifolds, in which the quaternionic torsion can be expressed in terms of a Dolbeault operator.