A signature formula for hyperelliptic broken Lefschetz fibrations (Q2250132)

A broken Lefschetz fibration is a smooth map \(f\) from a \(4\)-manifold \(M\) to a surface \(S\) having Lefschetz sigularities and indefinite fold singularities. If the image of the monodromy of \(f\) is in the hyperelliptic mapping class group, \(S=S^2\), the image \(Z\) of definite fold singularities is circles parallel to the equator of \(S\), the image of Lefschetz singuarities by \(f\) is in the connected component of \(S - Z\) containing the north pole, the vanishing cycles of indefinite folds are preserved by the hyperelliptic involution, and the genera of general fibers change monotonously along the longitude of \(S=S^2\), \(f\) is called a directed hyperelliptic Lefschetz fibration. In this paper, as a generalization of Endo's local signature formula for hyperelliptic Lefschetz fibrations, it is shown that, for a hyperelliptic directed broken Lefschetz fibration \(f\) from \(M\) to \(S^2\), Sign \(M\) is a sum of the local signatures of the Lefschetz singular fibers and the values of some homomorphism of the monodromy for the indefinite fold singularities. This result is shown mainly by using \textit{H. Endo}'s work in [Math. Ann. 316, No. 2, 237--257 (2000; Zbl 0948.57013)] and \textit{C. T. C. Wall}'s non-additivity formula in [Invent. Math. 7, 269--274 (1969; Zbl 0176.21501)].