Koszul complexes, harmonic oscillators, and the Todd class

Abstract

In this paper, we construct secondary characteristic classes associated with a short exact sequence of holomorphic Hermitian vector bundles. These secondary invariants are generalized analytic torsion forms associated with a family of elliptic operators. They are calculated in terms of Bott-Chern forms and of a certain complicated characteristic class. In a joint calculation with C. Soulé, we relate this characteristic class to the arithmetic Todd genus of Gillet and Soulé.