English

Lectures on Witten Helffer Sj\"ostrand Theory

Differential Geometry 2007-05-23 v2

Abstract

Witten- Helffer-Sj\"ostrand theory is a considerable addition to the De Rham- Hodge theory for Riemannian manifolds and can serve as a general tool to prove results about comparison of numerical invariants associated to compact manifolds analytically, i.e. by using a Riemannian metric, or combinatorially, i.e by using a triangulation. In this presentation a triangulation, or a partition of a smooth manifold in cells, will be viewed in a more analytic spirit, being provided by the stable manifolds of the gradient of a nice Morse function. WHS theory was recently used both for providing new proofs for known but difficult results in topology, as well as new results and a positive solution for an important conjecture about L2L_2-torsion, cf [BFKM]. This presentation is a short version of a one quarter course I have given during the spring of 1997 at OSU.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/9807008,
  title  = {Lectures on Witten Helffer Sj\"ostrand Theory},
  author = {Dan Burghelea},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/9807008},
  year   = {2007}
}

Comments

17 pages, AMStex, minor grammar corrections