The Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index formula for measured foliations (Q1943223)

Atiyah, Patodi and Singer solved an index problem of the Dirac operator on an even dimensional manifold with boundary and introduced the extra spectral invariant term in the APS-index formula, on top of the Atiyah-Singer local integrant [\textit{M. F. Atiyah}, \textit{V. K. Patodi} and \textit{I. M. Singer}, Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 77, 43--69 (1975; Zbl 0297.58008)]. They investigated the index problem under the following two approaches: (1) Global boundary condition (known as APS boundary condition); (2) \(L^2\)-index problem on an open manifold obtained by attaching a cylinder to the boundary. In [J. Differ. Geom. 38, No. 2, 315--349 (1993; Zbl 0787.58040)], \textit{M. Ramachandran} generalised the longitudinal index theorem for measured foliations of \textit{A. Connes} [Lect. Notes Math. 725, 19--143 (1979; Zbl 0412.46053)] to foliated compact manifolds with boundary, and got a parallel APS index formula assuming suitable APS boundary condition. In the present paper, the author develops the second point of view (cylinder method) to obtain an APS index formula for foliations of manifolds \(X\) with cylindrical end. Here, \(X\) is the union of two parts. One part \(X_0\) is a compact manifold with boundary with a measured even dimensional foliation \(F\) with transverse boundary and a holonomy invariant transverse measure \(\Lambda\). The other part consists of cylinders attached to the boundary \(\partial X_0\) of \(X_0\) extending the foliation. Let \(D\) be the leaf-wise Dirac operator on \(X_0\). Assume also that \(D\) has a product structure near the boundary and denote by \(\tilde D\) the extended leaf-wise Dirac operator on the open manifold \(X\). The \(L^2\)-\(\Lambda\)-index of \(D\) (\(L^2\)-APS index for foliation) is defined by the real number \[ \mathrm{ind}_{L^2, \Lambda}(D):=\mathrm{tr}_{\Lambda}(\chi_{[0]}(\tilde D^+))-\mathrm{tr}_{\Lambda}(\chi_{[0]}(\tilde D^-)) \] where \(\mathrm{tr}_{\Lambda}\) is the von Neumann \(\Lambda\)-trace in the sense of \textit{M. Breuer} [Math. Ann. 180, 313--325 (1969; Zbl 0175.44102)]. The main result of the paper is that the \(L^2\)-\(\Lambda\)-index of \(D\) is finite and is calculated by \[ \mathrm{ind}_{L^2, \Lambda}(D)=\langle\hat A(X)Ch(E/S), C_{\Lambda}\rangle+\frac12[\eta_{\Lambda}(D^{F_{\partial}})-h_{\Lambda}^++h_{\lambda}^-] \] where \(h_{\Lambda}^{\pm}\) are the space of limiting values of extended solutions, \(C_{\Lambda}\) is the Ruelle-Sullivan current associated to the transverse measure \(\Lambda\) and \(\eta_{\Lambda}(D^{F_{\partial}})\) is the eta invariant of the boundary leaf-wise operator in the sense of Ramachandran. Note that although the \(L^2\)-index exists, \(D\) is not necessarily \(\Lambda\)-Fredholm (invertibility of the boundary operator is required). The proof of the theorem used and generalised the idea of [\textit{B. Vaillian}, Indextheorie für Überlagerungen. (Diplomarbeit) Bonn: Universität Bonn (1997)]. The key point of the proof is that one can perform a \(\Lambda\)-compact perturbation of \(D\) into a \(\Lambda\)-Fredholm operator without changing the \(L^2\)-\(\Lambda\)-index. A careful analysis is then devoted to the finiteness of the \(L^2\)-\(\Lambda\)-index, relating the heat kernel of the perturbed operator with the original one, and convergence of the \(\eta\)-invariant for the perturbation. The author also shows that his \(L^2\)-\(\Lambda\)-index is compatible with that of Ramachandran, as is suggested by APS in the non-foliated cases.