A Witten style proof of Morse inequalities for orbit spaces (Q1977652)

Let \(G\) be a compact Lie group acting on a closed manifold \(M\) of dimension \(n\), and \(G_0\) its connected component containing the identity. A function \(f\in C^\infty (M/G)\) is a \(G\)-Morse function if its critical orbits are nondegenerate. For such a function \(f\), let \(\text{Crit}_G (f)\) be the set of its critical orbits, which is a finite set. By using \textit{E. Witten}'s method [J. Differ. Geom. 17, 661-692 (1982; Zbl 0499.53056)] the author proves Morse inequalities for \(H^* (M/G)\), the real cohomology of the orbit space \(M/G\).