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The Metric Anomaly of Analytic Torsion on Manifolds with Conical Singularities

In this paper we study the analytic torsion of an odd-dimensional manifold with isolated conical singularities. First we show that the analytic torsion is invariant under deformations of the metric which are of higher order near the singularities. Then we identify the metric anomaly of analytic torsion for a bounded generalized cone at its regular boundary in terms of spectral information of the cross-section. In view of previous computations of analytic torsion on cones, this leads to a detailed geometric identification of the topological and spectral contributions to analytic torsion, arising from the conical singularity. The contribution exhibits a torsion-like spectral invariant of the cross-section of the cone, which we study under scaling of the metric on the cross-section.