The \(\eta\)-form and a generalized Maslov index (Q1386153)

The classical Maslov index was introduced by Wall as a measure of the nonadditivity under gluing of the signature of manifolds with boundary. The authors present a certain family version of this. Given a family \(\{L_0(b), L_1(b)\}_{b\in B}\) of pairs of transverse Lagrangian subspaces of a Hermitian symplectic vector space, the authors define a family of Dirac operators on the unit interval and consider its \(\eta\)-form \(\eta(L_0,L_1)\in \Omega^*(B)\). Then they associate to a family \(\{L_0(b), L_1(b), L_2(b)\}_{b\in B}\) of pairwise transverse Lagrangian subspaces the cocycle \(\eta(L_0, L_1)+ \eta(L_1, L_2)+ \eta(L_2,L_0)\) which is a closed form. Finally, they identify its cohomology class with a generalization to families of the triple Maslov index. This is the content of their following main theorem. Theorem. If \(\{L_0(b), L_1(b), L_2(b)\}_{b\in B}\) is a smooth family of triples of pairwise transverse Lagrangian subspaces of \(V\), then (1) \(d(\eta(L_0,L_1)+ \eta(L_1,L_2)+ \eta(L_2,L_0)) =0\), (2) and if one defines the cohomology class \(\tau(L_0, L_1, L_2)\) by \[ \tau(L_0, L_1, L_2):= [\eta(L_0,L_1)+ \eta(L_1,L_2)+ \eta(L_2,L_0)]\in H^{\text{even}} (B,\mathbb{R}), \] then \(\tau(L_0, L_1, L_2)= {\mathbf {ch}}(L_0^+)- {\mathbf {ch}} (L_0^-)\), where \(L_0= L_0^+\oplus L_0^-\) is the splitting of the bundle of Lagrangian subspaces \(L_0\subset B\times V\) into the positive and negative eigenspaces of the quadratic form \(Q(x_0):= \Omega(x_1,x_2)\), where \(x_i\in L_i\), \(x_0= x_1+ x_2\). The proof of the theorem is based on a local index theorem for families of Dirac operators on manifolds with cylindrical ends and boundaries with local boundary condition.