orsions for Manifolds with Boundary and Glueing Formulas (Q4934178)

The purpose of the paper under review is to extend the definition of analytic and Reidemeister torsion for closed compact Riemannian manifolds, to compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary \((M,\partial M)\). These torsions are associated to a parallel flat bundle \({\mathcal F}\) of \({\mathcal A}\)-Hilbert modules of finite type over \(M\), where \({\mathcal A}\) is a finite von Neumann algebra. Operators whose spectrum, in general, is not exclusively pure point, but might contain a continuous part as well, are involved. A formula for the quotient of the analytic torsion and the Reidemeister torsion are provided. In particular, a conjecture of J. Lott and W. Lück [preprint] is proved. When \({\mathcal F}\) is induced from the universal covering of \(M\) and the fundamental group of \(M\) is infinite, these torsions are known as \(L_2\)-analytic and \(L_2\)-Reidemeister torsions [see the present authors and \textit{P. McDonald}, Geom. Funct. Anal. 6, No. 5, 751-859 (1996; Zbl 0874.57025)]. Assuming that \(\partial M\) is a union of two disjoint components, \(\partial_{-}M\) and \(\partial_{+}M\), the notion of generalized triangulation for a bordism \((M,\partial_{-}M,\partial_{+}M)\) is introduced as well as its dual triangulation. The authors define analytic Laplacians \(\Delta_q\) acting on \(q\)-forms with coefficients in \({\mathcal F}\) with relative (or Dirichlet) boundary conditions on \(\partial_{-}M\) and absolute (or Neumann) boundary conditions on \(\partial_{+}M\). The triple \((M\partial_{-}M,\partial_{+}M)\) is said to be of determinant class if all the analytic Laplacians are of determinant class, i.e. \(\log\det_N'' \Delta_q\in {\mathbb R}\). If the system \((M\partial_{-}M,\partial_{+}M)\) is of determinant class, the quotient of the analytic and the Reidemeister torsions are computed and glueing formulas for both torsions are established. If \({\mathcal F}\) is induced from a \(\Gamma\)-principal covering, where \(\Gamma\) is a residually finite group, it is proved that the system \((M,\partial_{-}M,\partial_{+}M,{\mathcal F})\) is of determinant class. The results of the paper under review can be extended to the case where \({\mathcal F}\) is a flat bundle with a Hermitian structure, which is not necessarily parallel with respect to the connection.