Metrics for singular analytic spaces (Q1894913)

Recent work of Saper, Zucker, and others indicates that Kähler metrics with appropriate growth rates on the nonsingular set of a compact Kähler variety are useful in describing the geometry of such a variety. It has been conjectured that for every complex algebraic variety \(X\) there exists a Kähler metric on the nonsingular set of \(X\) whose \(L_ 2\)-cohomology is isomorphic to the intersection cohomology of \(X\). Saper proved this conjecture for varieties with isolated singularities, using a complete Kähler metric. Similar results have been obtained by others using incomplete metrics. We give natural and explicit constructions of three types of Kähler metrics on the nonsingular set \(X - X_{\text{sing}}\) of a subvariety \(X\) of a compact Kähler manifold. No restrictions on the type of singularities of \(X\) are assumed. Similar constructions can be done for nonembedded compact Kähler varieties. The first metric is Hodge if \(X\) is algebraic but is not complete on \(X - X_{\text{sing}}\) if \(X\) is singular. The completion of \(X - X_{\text{sing}}\) under this metric is a desingularization of \(X\). The second metric is complete and generalizes Saper's metric for varieties with isolated singularities. Moreover each incomplete metric of the first type is naturally associated with a complete metric of the second type. The third metric is a sum of the first two and has Poincaré-type growth near the singular locus of \(X\).