Analytic torsion and R-torsion of Witt representations on manifolds with cusps

Abstract

We establish a Cheeger-Muller theorem for unimodular representations satisfying a Witt condition on a noncompact manifold with cusps. This class of spaces includes all non-compact hyperbolic spaces of finite volume, but we do not assume that the metric has constant curvature nor that the link of the cusp is a torus. We use renormalized traces in the sense of Melrose to define the analytic torsion and we relate it to the intersection R-torsion of Dar of the natural compactification to a stratified space. Our proof relies on our recent work on the behavior of the Hodge Laplacian spectrum on a closed manifold undergoing degeneration to a manifold with fibered cusps.