An index formula for the intersection Euler characteristic of an infinite cone (Q5892220)

The main purpose of this Note is to establish an index formula for the intersection Euler characteristic of a cone. The abstract setting corresponds to the Witten Laplacian, which is defined by \(\Delta_{T,\pm}:=\Delta \pm T(2N-n)+T^2r^2\) and that corresponds to the Laplace operator associated with the Witten deformation of the complex of \(L^2\)-forms on the cone using the radial (resp., anti-radial) Morse function \(f_\pm =\pm\frac{1}{2}r^2\). After studying the spectral properties of \(\Delta_{T,\pm}\), the author establishes a McKean-Singer-type formula and gives an explicit formula for the zeta function of the model Witten Laplacian. In a second step, there are applied local index techniques to the model Witten Laplacian. By combining these two steps, it is obtained the absolute and relative intersection Euler characteristic of the cone as a sum of two terms, namely a local term and a second one, which is the Cheeger invariant.