Torsion type invariants of singularities (Q2042254)

The authors study the local index theory of the Schrödinger operator associated to a singularity defined on \(\mathbb{C}^n\) by a quasi-homogeneous polynomial \(f\). They are inspired by the correspondence between the supersymmetric Landau-Ginzburg model in physics and mirror symmetry for Calabi-Yau manifolds. Under some mild assumption on \(f\), they show that the small time heat kernel expansion of the corresponding Schrödinger operator exists and is a series of fractional powers of the time \(t\). A local index formula is proved which expresses the Milnor number of \(f\) by a Gaussian type integration. The heat kernel expansion provides the spectral invariants of \(f\). One can define torsion type invariants associated to a homogeneous singularity. The spectral invariants provide another way to classify the singularity.