Archimedean cohomology revisited

Abstract

Archimedean cohomology provides a cohomological interpretation for the calculation of the local L-factors at archimedean places as zeta regularized determinant of a log of Frobenius. In this paper we investigate further the properties of the Lefschetz and log of monodromy operators on this cohomology. We use the Connes-Kreimer formalism of renormalization to obtain a fuchsian connection whose residue is the log of the monodromy. We also present a dictionary of analogies between the geometry of a tubular neighborhood of the ``fiber at arithmetic infinity'' of an arithmetic variety and the complex of nearby cycles in the geometry of a degeneration over a disk, and we recall Deninger's approach to the archimedean cohomology through an interpretation as global sections of a analytic Rees sheaf. We show that action of the Lefschetz, the log of monodromy and the log of Frobenius on the archimedean cohomology combine to determine a spectral triple in the sense of Connes. The archimedean part of the Hasse-Weil L-function appears as a zeta function of this spectral triple. We also outline some formal analogies between this cohomological theory at arithmetic infinity and Givental's homological geometry on loop spaces.