Title: The Cheeger Muller theorem.
Abstract: The Cheeger Muller theorem is an example of Topology = Analysis/Geometry type of results. The topological invariant (Reidemeister torsion) was defined by Reidemeister in the study on lens spaces. On the analytic side, Ray and Singer introduced the analytic torsion and conjectured that these two torsions were equal. It was proved independently by Cheeger and Muller.
In this talk I will introduce and define the analytic torsion and give a sketch of the proof using Morse theory and Witten deformation.
