Differential Geometry Seminar

Friday, 11/22, 3:00 -- 3:50pm, SH 6635

Speaker: Xianzhe Dai, UCSB

Title: Analytic torsion and degeneration via Eguchi-Hanson instanton Abstract: Analytic torsion is a combination of determinants of the Laplacians on differential forms introduced by Ray-Singer as an analytic counterpart of the topological invariant, the Reidemeister torsion. It is trivial in even dimensions, but there is a complex version defined for complex manifolds. Motivated by questions from modular forms and mirror symmetry, we study the degeneration of the analytic torsion when the underlying manifolds develop orbifold singularities (via Eguchi-Hanson instanton). This is joint work with Ken-Ichi Yoshikawa.