Extending the Cheeger-Müller theorem through degeneration
By Pierre Albin
Reidemeister torsion was the first topological invariant that could distinguish between spaces which were homotopy equivalent but not homeomorphic. The Cheeger-Müller theorem established that the Reidemeister torsion of a closed manifold can be computed analytically. I will report on joint work with Frédéric Rochon and David Sher on finding a topological expression for the analytic torsion of a manifold with fibered cusp ends. Examples of these manifolds include most locally symmetric spaces of rank one. We establish our theorem by controlling the behavior of analytic torsion as a space degenerates to form hyperbolic cusp ends.