A Thom-Smale-Witten theorem on manifolds with boundary

Abstract

Given a smooth compact manifold with boundary, we show that the subcomplex of the deformed de Rham complex consisting of eigenspaces of small eigenvalues of the Witten Laplacian is canonically isomorphic to the Thom-Smale complex constructed by Laudenbach. Our proof is based on Bismut-Lebeau's analytic localization techniques. As a by-product, we obtain Morse inequalities for manifolds with boundary.