The refined analytic torsion on compact manifolds with boundary
Abstract:
The refined analytic torsion was introduced by M. Braverman and T. Kappeler on an odd dimensional closed manifold as an analytic analogue of the Turaev torsion. In this talk I will discuss the refined analytic torsion on an odd dimensional compact oriented manifold with boundary. For this purpose I will introduce a well-posed boundary condition for the odd signature operator by using the Hodge decomposition theorem for the tangential operator and show that the refined analytic torsion is well defined under this boundary condition. I will show that it is invariant on the change of metrics in the interior of the manifold. This is a joint work with Yoonweon Lee.