Heat kernel asymptotics and analytic torsion on non-degenerate CR manifolds

The existence of small-time asymptotics for the heat kernel of the Kohn Laplacian on a general CR manifold has remained an open problem. In this paper, we resolve the problem in the non-degenerate case. More precisely, let $X$ be a compact oriented CR manifold of dimension $2n+1$, $n \ge 1$, with a nondegenerate Levi form of constant signature $(n_-, n_+)$. Suppose that condition $Y(q)$ holds at each point of $X$, we establish the small-time asymptotics of the heat kernel of Kohn Laplacian. Suppose that condition $Y(q)$ fails, we establish the small-time asymptotics of the kernel of the difference of the heat operator and Szeg\H{o} projector. As an application we define the analytic torsion on compact oriented nondegenerate CR manifolds and study its dependence on changes of the metrics. Let $L^k$ be the $k$-th power of a CR complex line bundle $L$ over $X$. We establish the asymptotics, as $k \to \infty$, of the analytic torsion with values in $L^k$, under a variant of spectral gap condition. Furthermore, when $X$ admits a transversal CR $S^1$-action, we establish the small-time asymptotics of the $S^1$-equivariant heat kernel of the Kohn Laplacian with values in $L^k$. As an application we define the $S^1$-equivariant Quillen metric with values in $L^k$ and study its dependence on changes of the metrics. Finally, we establish the asymptotics, as $k \to \infty$, of the $S^1$-equivariant analytic torsion with values in $L^k$.