The refined analytic torsion and a well-posed boundary condition for the odd signature operator

Abstract

Abstract In this paper we discuss the refined analytic torsion on an odd dimensional compact oriented Riemannian manifold with boundary under some assumption. For this purpose we introduce two boundary conditions which are complementary to each other and well-posed for the odd signature operator B in the sense of Seeley. We then show that the zeta-determinants of B 2 and eta-invariants of B subject to these boundary conditions are well defined by using the method of the asymptotic expansions of the traces of the heat kernels. We use these facts to define the refined analytic torsion on a compact manifold with boundary and show that it is invariant on the change of metrics in the interior of the manifold. We finally describe the refined analytic torsion under these boundary conditions as an element of the determinant line.