Cheeger-Chern-Simons classes of transversally symmetric foliations: Dependence relations and eta-invariants (Q1318016)

The classical ``Proportionality Principle'' of F. Hirzebruch states that for two compact locally symmetric Hermitian spaces of the same non- compact type, the corresponding sets of Chern numbers are proportional with proportionality factor given by the ratio of the two volumes. For odd-dimensional manifolds all rational primary characteristic numbers are zero for trivial reasons, but instead there are well-defined secondary characteristic numbers of Cheeger-Chern-Simons type, the most important of which is the eta-invariant of Atiyah-Patodi-Singer. Analogously to the Hirzebruch Proportionality Principle we associate to the class of locally symmetric spaces with given universal covering a ``degree of dependence'' \(d\), and show that the set of secondary characteristic numbers for this class of manifolds is a rational vector space of at most dimension \(d\).