Zeta regularized determinants for conic manifolds (Q859643)

The present paper provides a formula for the relative zeta-determinant on conic manifolds in the spirit of \textit{D. Burghelea, L. Friedlander} and \textit{T. Kappeler} [J. Funct. Anal. 107, No. 1, 34--65 (1992; Zbl 0759.58043)]. Here a conic manifold means a Riemannian manifold isometric outside a compact set with a model cone of the form \[ ((0,2)\times \Gamma,\;dr^2+r^2 h) \] where \((\Gamma,h)\) is a closed Riemannian manifold. The authors study symmetric second-order elliptic operators of the form \[ \Delta=\partial_r^2+r^{-2}A \] where \(A\) is a second-order self-adjoint operator on \(\Gamma\) acting on sections in a vector bundle. They assume that \(\Delta\) has the strong unique continuation property on the manifold with boundary \(r\geq 1\), and that \(A\geq -1/4\). These assumptions are fulfilled for the Laplace-Beltrami operator on forms, which provides the main example studied in the paper. The operator \(\Delta\) is not essentially self-adjoint, its self-adjoint extensions being described by Lagrangian subspaces in the finite-dimensional space corresponding to small eigenvalues of \(A\) (i.e., those eigenvalues \(\lambda\) with \(-1/4\leq\lambda <3/4\)). Two distinguished such extensions are the Dirichlet and Neumann extensions. For these, the relative zeta function is defined, shown to be regular at \(0\), and its derivative at \(0\) (which determines the relative determinant) is computed. The result involves the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map and certain matrices built from the small eigenvalues. More general formulae are also given for other operators. The proof uses the variational approach of Burghelea, Friedlander and Kappeler, and a gluing formula for relative determinants in the spirit of \textit{P. Loya} and \textit{J. Park} [Ill. J. Math. 48, No. 4, 1279--1303 (2004; Zbl 1083.58030)].