English

The Ray-Singer torsion

Differential Geometry 2024-01-26 v2 History and Overview

Abstract

In 1971, Ray and Singer proposed an analytic equivalent of a classical topological invariant, the R-torsion. This Ray-Singer torsion has had many ramifications in mathematics and physics. I will describe the background, the Ray-Singer papers and some subsequent work.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2309.05688,
  title  = {The Ray-Singer torsion},
  author = {John Lott},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2309.05688},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

final version

R2 v1 2026-06-28T12:18:26.751Z