WITTEN'S PERTURBATION ON STRATA WITH GENERAL ADAPTED METRICS

Let M be a stratum of a compact stratified space A. It is equipped with a general adapted metric g, which is slightly more general than the adapted metrics of Nagase and Brasselet–Hector–Saralegi. In particular, g has a general type, which is an extension of the type of an adapted metric. A restriction on this general type is assumed, and then, g is called good. We consider the maximum/minimum ideal boundary condition, \(d_{\mathrm{max/min}}\), of the compactly supported de Rham complex on M, in the sense of Bruning–Lesch. Let \(H^*_{\mathrm{max/min}}(M)\) and \(\Delta _{\mathrm{max/min}}\) denote the cohomology and Laplacian of \(d_{\mathrm{max/min}}\). The first main theorem states that \(\Delta _{\mathrm{max/min}}\) has a discrete spectrum satisfying a weak form of the Weyl’s asymptotic formula. The second main theorem is a version of Morse inequalities using \(H_{\mathrm{max/min}}^*(M)\) and what we call rel-Morse functions. An ingredient of the proofs of both theorems is a version for \(d_{\mathrm{max/min}}\) of the Witten’s perturbation of the de Rham complex. Another ingredient is certain perturbation of the Dunkl harmonic oscillator previously studied by the authors using classical perturbation theory. The condition on g to be good is general enough in the following sense. Assume that A is a stratified pseudomanifold, and consider its intersection homology \(I^{\bar{p}}H_*(A)\) with perversity \(\bar{p}\); in particular, the lower and upper middle perversities are denoted by \(\bar{m}\) and \(\bar{n}\), respectively. Then, for any perversity \(\bar{p}\le \bar{m}\), there is an associated good adapted metric on M satisfying the Nagase isomorphism \(H^r_{\mathrm{max}}(M)\cong I^{\bar{p}}H_r(A)^*\) (\(r\in \mathbb {N}\)). If M is oriented and \(\bar{p}\ge \bar{n}\), we also get \(H^r_{\mathrm{min}}(M)\cong I^{\bar{p}}H_r(A)\). Thus our version of the Morse inequalities can be described in terms of \(I^{\bar{p}}H_*(A)\).