A class function on the mapping class group of an orientable surface and the Meyer cocycle (Q1006346)

Let \(\Sigma_{g,2}\) be a compact oriented surface of genus \(g\) with two boundary components, and let \(\mathcal M_{g,2}\) be its mapping class group. In the paper under review the author constructs a function \(m : \mathcal M_{g,2} \to \mathbb Q{\mathbf P}^1\) (the rational projective line) which is invariant under conjugation in \(\mathcal M_{g,2}\) and satisfies \(m(\varphi^k) = k\, m(\varphi)\) with respect to the additive monoid structure on \(\mathbb Q{\mathbf P}^1 \cong \mathbb Q \cup \{\infty\}\). Moreover, the function \(m\) is surjective if \(g \geq 1\). The main feature of this function is its interesting relation with the Meyer cocycle in \(\mathcal M_{g}\) as defined by \textit{W. Meyer} [Math. Ann. 201, 239--264 (1973; Zbl 0241.55019)]. In fact, although \(m(\varphi)\) is defined in terms of the mapping torus \(X ^{\varphi}\) by means of the homomorphism \(i_* : H_1(\partial X ^{\varphi}; \mathbb Q) \to H_1(X ^{\varphi}; \mathbb Q)\) induced by the inclusion, it encodes informations on certain 4-manifolds related with pairs of mapping classes. More precisely, given two elements \(\varphi\) and \(\psi \in \mathcal M_{g,2}\) the author consider the natural extensions of them to \(\Sigma_{g,0}\) and to \(\Sigma_{g+1,0}\) obtained by capping off \(\Sigma_{g,2}\) with two discs in the former case and with an annulus in the latter case. Then these extensions are used as the monodromies for two surface bundles over \(\Sigma_{0,3}\) with fibre \(\Sigma_{g,0}\) and \(\Sigma_{g+1,0}\) respectively, in order to construct two 4-manifolds \(E_g\) and \(E_{g+1}\) as the total spaces. The relation with the Meyer cocycle can be expressed as the difference between the signature of \(E_{g+1}\) and that of \(E_g\) in terms of \(m\) as follows: \(\text{Sign}(E_{g+1}) - \text{Sign}(E_g) = \text{sign}(m(\varphi)) + \text{sign}(m(\psi)) - \text{sign}(m(\varphi \psi))\) where the sign of \([p : q] \in \mathbb Q{\mathbf P}^1\) is \(\text{sign}(p q)\) if \(p q \neq 0\) and vanishes otherwise. The main theorem is not stated in this explicit form, but this can be easily deduced from the definitions and also from its proof. As a consequence the author is able to express in terms of \(m\) the differences of the signatures of other two pairs of surface bundles involving the previous ones and that with fibre \(\Sigma_{g,2}\) and monodromies \(\varphi\) and \(\psi\).