A short course on Witten Helffer-Sj\"ostrand theory

Abstract

Witten-Helffer-Sj\"ostrand theory is an addition to Morse theory and Hodge-de Rham theory for Riemannian manifolds and considerably improves on them by injecting some spectral theory of elliptic operators. It can serve as a general tool to prove results about comparison of numerical invariants associated to compact manifolds analytically, i.e. by using a Riemannian metric, or combinatorially, i.e. by using a triangulation. It can be also refined to provide an alternative presentation of Novikov Morse theory and improve on it in many respects. In particular it can be used in symplectic topology and in dynamics. This material represents my Notes for a three lectures course given at the Goettingen summer school on groups and geometry, June 2000.