Torsions for manifolds with boundary and glueing formulas

Abstract

We extend the definition of analytic and Reidemeister torsion for closed compact iemannian manifolds, to compact Riemannian manifolds with boundary (M, δ M), given a parallel at bundle F of A-Hilbert modules of finite type and a decomposition of the boundary δM = -M ⊔ δ+M into disjoint components. When F is induced from the universal covering of M, and the fundamental group of M is infinite, these torsions are known as the L2-analytic resp. 2-Reidemeister torsions. If the system (M, δ-M, δ+M, F) is of determinant class we compute he quotient of the analytic and the Reidemeister torsion and prove gluing formulas for both of hem. In particular we answer positively Conjecture 7.6 in [LL]. If F is induced from a Γ-principal overing where Γ is a residually finite group, we derive from work of Lück, that the system (M, δ-M, δ+M, F) is of determinant class.