ADIABATIC DECOMPOSITION OF THE -DETERMINANT OF THE DIRAC LAPLACIAN. I. THE CASE OF AN INVERTIBLE TANGENTIAL OPERATOR (Q3149935)

Let \(M\) be a closed Riemannian manifold and let \(D\) be a compatible operator of Dirac type. Let \(\det_\zeta D\) be the zeta-determinant. Assume given a decomposition \(M=M_1\cup_YM_2\) where \(M_i\) are compact Riemannian manifolds with common boundary \(Y\). The authors discuss the decomposition of \(\det_\zeta D\) into the contributions which arise from different parts of the manifold. The authors concentrate on the odd dimensional case and assume the structures are product near \(Y\) and assume the associated tangential operator is invertible -- this avoids certain, but not all, difficulties concerned with `small' eigenvalues. The authors present an `abadiatic' solution. Spectral boundary conditions (and more general boundary conditions involving suitably chosen projections) are imposed. Duhamel's principle is used for reduction to the cylinder and then explicit computations are made on the cylinder. The paper contains an appendix by Y. Lee dealing with the value of the \(\zeta\) function at \(s=0\) on the smooth self-adjoint Grassmannian.