The signature package on Witt spaces
In this paper we prove a variety of results about the signature operator on Witt spaces. First, we give a parametrix construction for the signature operator on any compact, oriented, stratified pseudomanifold which satisfies the Witt condition. This construction, which is inductive over the ‘depth’ of the singularity, is then used to show that the signature operator is essentially self-adjoint and has discrete spectrum of finite multiplicity, so that its index—the analytic signature of —is well-defined....