The bigraded Rumin complex via differential forms

Abstract

We give a new CR invariant treatment of the bigraded Rumin complex and related cohomology groups via differential forms. A key benefit is the identification of balanced $A_\infty$-structures on the Rumin and bigraded Rumin complexes. We also prove related Hodge decomposition theorems. Among many applications, we give a sharp upper bound on the dimension of the Kohn--Rossi groups $H^{0,q}(M^{2n+1})$, $1\leq q\leq n-1$, of a closed strictly pseudoconvex manifold with a contact form of nonnegative pseudohermitian Ricci curvature; we prove a sharp CR analogue of the Fr\"olicher inequalities in terms of the second page of a natural spectral sequence; we give new proofs of selected topological properties of closed Sasakian manifolds; and we generalize the Lee class $\mathcal{L}\in H^1(M;\mathscr{P})$ -- whose vanishing is necessary and sufficient for the existence of a pseudo-Einstein contact form -- to all nondegenerate orientable CR manifolds.