The Witten deformation of the Dolbeault complex (Q2044467)

The authors analyze heat-trace invariants of complexes of geometric differential operators perturbed by differential forms. Such complexes have attracted much attention since \textit{E. Witten} [J. Differ. Geom. 17, 661--692 (1982; Zbl 0499.53056)] discussed the de Rham complex's perturbation by an exact differential one-form and \textit{S. P. Novikov} [Sov. Math., Dokl. 24, 222--226 (1981; Zbl 0505.58011); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 260, 31--35 (1981); Russ. Math. Surv. 37, No. 5, 1--56 (1982; Zbl 0571.58011); translation from Usp. Mat. Nauk 37, No. 5(227), 3--49 (1982)] discussed a generalization in which the perturbation was a closed one-form. The paper under review considers a Kähler manifold's twisted Dolbeault complex, with a perturbation defined by the conjugate of a \(\partial\)-closed differential form of type \((1,0)\). It expresses the index density arising from the associated heat kernel in terms of the Todd class, the Chern character of the auxiliary vector bundle, and a contribution from the perturbation. It shows that terms of order lower than that of the index density vanish. The methods of proof involve invariance theory and depend on the corresponding result for Riemann surfaces that appeared in [the authors, Czech. Math. J. 71, No. 3, 901--932 (2021; Zbl 07396206)], which also analyzed the heat-trace invariants associated with the Witten and Novikov deformations of the de Rham complex.