Derived heat trace asymptotics for the de Rham and Dolbeault complexes

Abstract

We examine the derived heat trace asymptotics in both the real and the complex settings for a generalized Witten perturbation. If the dimension is even, in the real context we show the integral of the local density for the derived heat trace asymptotics is half the Euler characteristic of the underlying manifold. In the complex context, we assume the underlying geometry is K\"ahler and show the integral of the local density for the derived heat trace asymptotics defined by the Dolbeault complex is a characteristic number of the complex tangent bundle and the twisting vector bundle. We identify this characteristic number if the real dimension is $2$ or $4$. In both the real and complex settings, the local density differs from the corresponding characteristic class by a divergence term.