arXiv2026
We study the Hodge theory of smooth fibers of semistable degenerations of compact complex manifolds with central fibers of Kähler type. If every stratum of the central fiber is a $\partial\overline{\partial}$-manifold, we prove that the local invariant cycle property in all degrees implies that the nearby fibers satisfy the $\partial\overline{\partial}$-lemma. In middle degree, the corresponding property alone yields a canonical Hodge decomposition on the nearby fibers and an explicit formula, in terms of the limiting mixed Hodge structure, for the signature of the cup-product pairing on each Hodge component. This gives a partial converse to Clemens' local invariant cycle theorem for Kähler degenerations. As applications, we study global smoothings of ordinary double points and extend results of Friedman and Li on Clemens manifolds. We also apply our results to the non-Kähler Calabi--Yau manifolds constructed by Hashimoto--Sano and Sano. In particular, these manifolds satisfy the $\partial\overline{\partial}$-lemma, even though they are not in Fujiki class $\mathcal{C}$, and in Sano's higher-dimensional examples we explicitly determine the failure of the Hodge--Riemann bilinear relations on the middle cohomology.