The Witten deformation for even dimensional spaces with cone-like singularities and admissible Morse functions (Q990251)

Let \((X,g)\) be a Riemannian space of even dimension with isolated cone-like singularities \(\Sigma := \{p_1,\dots , p_N\}\). This means that each \(p\in \Sigma\) admits an open neighborhood \(U_\epsilon(p)\) in \(X\) such that \((U_\epsilon(p)\backslash \{p\}, g|_{U\backslash \{p\}})\) is isometric to \((\text{cone}_\epsilon(L_p)\backslash\{0\}, dr^2 + r^2 g_{L_p})\) for some \(\epsilon > 0\), where \(L_p\) is a smooth compact manifold called the link of \(X\) at \(p\). The author generalizes the Witten deformation of the de Rham complex determined by a Morse function to a deformation of the complex of \(L^2\)-forms determined by an admissible Morse function. Definition 1. Let \(f:X \rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) be a continuous function which is smooth outside the singularities of \(X\). The function \(f\) is called an admissible Morse function if the restriction \(f|_{X\backslash \Sigma}\) is Morse in the smooth sense and moreover if for any singular point \(p\in \Sigma\) the function \(f\) has the following local form in local coordinates \((r,\varphi) \in (0,\epsilon) \times L_p\) near \(p: f(r,\varphi) = f(p) + rh\), where \(h:L_p \rightarrow {\mathbb R}\) is a smooth function on the link such that \(|\nabla f| = |\nabla h|^2 + h^2 \geq a^2\) for some \(a > 0\). The de Rham complex \((\Omega_0^\ast(X \backslash \Sigma),d,\langle,\rangle)\) of smooth differential forms with compact supports has a unique extension to a Hilbert complex \(({\mathcal C},d,\langle,\rangle)\) in the Hilbert space of square integrable forms, where \(<\alpha,\beta> = \int_{X \backslash \Sigma} \alpha \wedge *\beta\). The homology of the complex \(({\mathcal C},d,\langle,\rangle)\) is called the \(L^2\)-cohomology of \(X\) and denoted \(H^i_{(2)}(X)\). The Witten deformation of \((\Omega_0^\ast(X \backslash \Sigma),d,\langle,\rangle)\) replaces the differential \(d\) with a differential \(d_t\) defined by \(d_t \omega = e^{-tf} d(e^{tf} \omega) = d\omega + t df \wedge \omega\). The generalization of the Witten deformation to \(X\) is given by Proposition 3. The complex \((\Omega_0^\ast(X \backslash \Sigma),d_t,\langle,\rangle)\) has a unique extension into a Hilbert complex \((C_t,d_t,\langle,\rangle)\). Moreover, the associated Laplacian \(\Delta_t = d_t \delta_t + \delta_t d_t\) with \(\text{dom}(\Delta_t) = \{\Psi \in L^2(\wedge^\ast(T^\ast(X \backslash \Sigma)))|\;d_t \Psi, \delta_t\Psi,\) \( d_t\delta_t \Psi, \delta_t d_t \Psi \in L^2(\wedge^\ast(T^\ast(X \backslash \Sigma))) \}\) is a non-negative, self-adjoint, discrete operator. Moreover \(\text{ker}(\Delta_t^{(i)}) \simeq H^i(({\mathcal C}_t, d_t, \langle,\rangle)) \simeq H^i_{(2)}(X)\), where \(\Delta_t^{(i)}\) denotes the restriction of \(\Delta_t\) to \(i\)-forms. The author then gives a spectral gap theorem and a local spectral gap theorem for the Witten Laplacian \(\Delta_t\) on \(X\), which are used to prove the Morse inequalities for an admissible Morse function \(f:X \rightarrow {\mathbb R}\).