N ov 2 00 5 Stringy E - functions of varieties with A - D - E singularities Jan

The stringy E-function for normal irreducible complex varieties with at worst log terminal singularities was introduced by Batyrev. It is defined by data from a log resolution. If the variety is projective and Gorenstein and the stringy E-function is a polynomial, Batyrev also defined the stringy Hodge numbers as a generalization of the Hodge numbers of nonsingular projective varieties, and conjectured that they are nonnegative. We compute explicit formulae for the contribution of an A-D-E singularity to the stringy E-function in arbitrary dimension. With these results we can say when the stringy E-function of a variety with such singularities is a polynomial and in that case we prove that the stringy Hodge numbers are nonnegative.