On analytic torsion over C*-algebras
In this paper, we present an analytic definition for the relative torsion for flat C*-algebra bundles over a compact manifold. The advantage of such a relative torsion is that it is defined without any hypotheses on the flat C*-algebra bundle. In the case where the flat C*-algebra bundle is of determinant class, we relate it easily to the L^2 torsion as defined in [7],[5].