Cheeger-Müller theorem on manifolds with cusps (Q2633087)

This paper is a contribution to the generalisation of the Cheeger-Müller theorem to flat vector bundles over singular manifolds. There are essentially three components to this problem: defining analytic torsion as a combination of regularised determinant of Hodge Laplacians, defining Reidemeister torsion from a triangulation, which should be a (simple) homotopy invariant of the bundle and relating the two. The first step boils down to showing that heat kernels are well-behaved for small time, establishing a Minakshisundaram-Pleijel-like expansion of a (renormalised if necessary) trace, and for large times (for example a spectral gap). For the second step the natural candidate from the point of view of the setting considered here is the intersection torsion of \textit{A. Dar} [Math. Z. 194, 193--216 (1987; Zbl 0605.57012)]. The framework for demonstrating the equality between the two (up to better-understood terms) is given by gluing formulas, which allows to study the singular parts in isolation to the rest of the manifold (see [\textit{M. Lesch}, Anal. PDE 6, No. 1, 221--256 (2013; Zbl 1276.58010)]). This can be carried out in specific settings, here this is done for cusp singularities and the following result is obtained (Theorem 2.10): the quotient between analytic and Reidemeister (intersection) torsion depends only on the cusp, and more precisely it equals a torsion for the cusp times an explicit term (similar to an Euler characteristic for the cusp section). Other Cheeger-Müller type results for manifolds with cusps are due to \textit{J. Pfaff} [J. Inst. Math. Jussieu 16, No. 4, 673--743 (2017; Zbl 1378.58030)] and \textit{P. Albin} et al. [Duke Math. J. 167, No. 10, 1883--1950 (2018; Zbl 1408.58025)], and concern torsions with coefficients in certain bundles.