Stringy Hodge numbers of varieties with Gorenstein canonical singularities

Abstract

We introduce the notion of stringy E-function for an arbitrary normal irreducible algebraic variety X with at worst log-terminal singularities. We prove some basic properties of stringy E-functions and compute them explicitly for arbitrary Q-Gorenstein toric varieties. Using stringy E-functions, we propose a general method to define stringy Hodge numbers for projective algebraic varieties with at worst Gorenstein canonical singularities. This allows us to formulate the topological mirror duality test for arbitrary Calabi-Yau varieties with canonical singularities. In Appendix we explain non-Archimedian integrals over spaces of arcs. We need these integrals for the proof of the main technical statement used in the definition of stringy Hodge numbers.