Low energy resolvent for the Hodge Laplacian: Applications to Riesz transform, Sobolev estimates and analytic torsion

Abstract

On an asymptotically conic manifold $(M,g)$, we analyze the asymptotics of the integral kernel of the resolvent $R_q(k):=(Δ_q+k^2)^{-1}$ of the Hodge Laplacian $Δ_q$ on $q$-forms as the spectral parameter $k$ approaches zero, assuming that 0 is not a resonance. The first application we give is an $L^p$ Sobolev estimate for $d+δ$ and $Δ_q$. Then we obtain a complete characterization of the range of $p>1$ for which the Riesz transform for $q$-forms $T_q=(d+δ)Δ_q^{-1/2}$ is bounded on $L^p$. Finally, we obtain an asymptotic formula for the analytic torsion of a family of smooth compact Riemannian manifolds $(Ω_ε,g_ε)$ degenerating to a compact manifold $(Ω_0,g_0)$ with a conic singularity as $ε\to 0$.