General perversities and \(L^2\) de Rham and Hodge theorems for stratified pseudomanifolds (Q2637618)

Given a compact stratified pseudomanifold \(X\), an important invariant is its intersection cohomology, which depends on the choice of suitable perversities. In many situations, the intersection cohomology is closely related to the \(L^2\)-de Rham cohomology of a suitable Riemannian metric on the regular part, and one can also establish an associated Hodge theorem, expressing the \(L^2\)-de Rham cohomology as the space of \(L^2\)-harmonic forms. The paper adds to this well established theory by proving the corresponding results in a number of new and more general cases. Indeed, the setup is a general compact stratified oriented pseudomanifold \(X\) (with a Thom-Mather stratification), e.g.~without any assumption on the codimension of the top singular stratum. The main results of the paper are the following: for a special kind of metric (described in local coordinates near the lower dimensional strata, called quasi edge metric with weights) the author defines a generalized perversity (in the sense of Greg Friedman, and depending on the weights) and then obtains an isomorphism between a) the intersection cohomology of \(X\) (with the generalized perversity and a certain stratified coefficient system) b) the \(L^2\)-de Rham cohomology (with maximal domain) of the regular part with the quasi edge metric c) the \(L^2\)-harmonics with ``absolute'' boundary conditions. Poincaré duality then implies also a dual statement, involving the complementary perversity, the \(L^2\)-de Rham cohomology with minimal domain and the ``relative'' \(L^2\)-harmonics. A main application is that the analytically defined \(L^2\)-cohomology vector spaces are finite dimensional. Conversely, if a generalized perversity is given which is either bigger than the upper middle perversity, or smaller than the lower middle perversity (and an extra normalization condition), then the author shows how to construct quasi edge metrics such that the above isomorphisms with the given perversity hold. Finally, he shows that, if the perversity is classical and the top singular stratum has codimension \(2\), the coefficient system for the intersection cohomology featuring above can be chosen to be constant. The proof is based on some explicit analytic calculations in the model case of a cone over a manifold and then on the use of sheaf theoretic methods.