Local signature defect of fibered complex surfaces via monodromy and stable reduction (Q2269707)

Let \(f: S\to B\) be a fibred surface with signature \(\mathrm{Sign}(S)=K_S^2-2c_2(S)\). If there is a map \(\sigma\) from the fibre germs of \(f\) to \(\mathbb Q\), which vanishes almost everywhere such that \[ \mathrm{Sign}(S)=\sum _{b\in B}\sigma(f, F_b), \] we say that \(\mathrm{Sign}(S)\) is localized, and call \(\sigma\) a local signature. Local signatures have been constructed up to genus \(3\) by many authors. The author aims to construct a local signature for fibrations in arbitrary genus. In [Advanced Studies in Pure Mathematics 56, 1--34 (2009; Zbl 1196.14024)] together with K.-I. Yoshikawa he discusses a local signature for semistable fibrations. In this paper, he treats the relationship between the signature of a surface fibred over a curve, and the signature of its stable reduction. He defines a local signature defect by means of Atiyah-Patodi-Singer's eta invariant, and analyzes its behavior under the process of stable reduction. In particular he proves that the local signature defect has an explicit translation in terms of the Nielsen invariants of \(f\), thus it is independent of the choice of the metric.