The infinitesimal Lefschetz formulas: A heat equation proof

In this paper, the Lefschetz formulas of Atiyah and Bott (Ann. of Math.86 (1967), 374–407; 88 (1968), 451–491) and Atiyah and Singer (Ann. of Math.87 (1968), 546–604; 93 (1971), 119–138) are proved by heat equation methods in infinitesimal form, i.e., without using the usual localization on the fixed point set. The proof is obtained by a homotopic deformation of the Dirac operator and uses probabilistic methods. The main applications are potentially in noncompact situations where fixed point formulas do not always hold, while their infinitesimal analogues are still valid.