Relative Chern character number and super-connection (Q1688211)

First the author reviews some properties of odd Chern characteristic class and gives the local calculation near the singularities contained in the product of two spheres. The notion of super-connection introduced by Quillen as a generalization of the notion of connection in the category of \(\mathbb Z_2\)-graded vector bundles is used to localize the relative Chern character number (using the odd Chern character on the product of spheres). The main result of the paper is: For a closed oriented \(2n\)-dimensional manifold \(M\) (under some assumptions presented in the paper), the following formula holds. \[ \big\langle ch(E_+)-ch(E_-), [M]\big\rangle=(-1)^{(n+1)}\sum_{(1\leq i\leq l)}\deg^\ast (v_i), \] where \(E_+\) and \(E_-\) are two complex vector bundles with the same rank, and \(v\) is a complex linear homomorphism between the two vector bundles, which is isomorphic on \(M\backslash U\), for a proper open submanifold \(U\) of \(M\). A direct application of this formula is the localization of the index of the twisted Dirac operator for some spin manifolds admitting some sphere bundle structure.