Analytic torsion and R-torsion for manifolds with boundary (Q5929579)

After the establishment of the coincidence of the analytic torsion and Reidemeister torsion by Cheeger and Müller there were done various significant works along the same line, namely on closed manifolds. Lott-Rothenberg, then Lück and Vishik addressed this problem on manifolds with boundary with a product metric structure near the boundary. They found that the analytic torsion and Reidemeister torsion for manifolds with boundary differ by a topological invariant, the Euler number of the boundary manifold [\textit{J. Lott} and \textit{M. Rothenberg}, J. Differ. Geom. 34, 431-481 (1991; Zbl 0744.57021), \textit{W. Lück}, J. Difer. Geom. 37, 263-322 (1993; Zbl 0792.53025), \textit{S. M. Vishik}, Commun. Math. Phys. 167, 1-102 (1995; Zbl 0818.58049)]. In this paper the authors establish a general formula of the difference of analytic torsion and Reidemeister torsion on a Riemannian manifold with boundary, but without assuming the product structure near the boundary. They state that there are two extra geometric terms coming in, that is, one is the Chern-Simon class defined by [\textit{J. M. Bismut} and \textit{W. Zhang}, `An Extension of a Theorem by Cheeger and Müller', Astérisque 205 (1992; Zbl 0781.58039)] and the other is involving the second fundamental form of the boundary and the curvature tensors of the manifold.