Eta invariants and the hypoelliptic Laplacian (Q2319580)

The aim of this paper is to give a new proof of the results of \textit{H. Moscovici} and \textit{R. J. Stanton} [Invent. Math. 95, No. 3, 629--666 (1989; Zbl 0672.58043)] on orbital integrals associated with eta invariants of Dirac operators on compact odd-dimensional locally symmetric spaces. Here the author uses his hypoelliptic Laplacian on symmetric spaces constructed in [\textit{J.-M. Bismut}, Hypoelliptic Laplacian and orbital integrals. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press (2011; Zbl 1234.58001)], whereas Moscovici and Stanton used methods of harmonic analysis on reductive groups. Note that in the cited work the author already evaluated orbital integrals (appearing in the computation of the Ray-Singer analytic torsion) associated with the square of the Dirac operator. Thus, many ideas, methods and results from the cited work of the author are used here. The computations of the orbital integrals in the present paper are quite lengthy, and the author separates algebraic and geometric arguments (approximately one half of the paper) and analytic arguments (approximately the remaining half of the paper). Algebraic and geometric arguments include two-parameter deformations of generalized Dirac operators and hypoelliptic Laplacians associated with rotations in certain Clifford algebras and use odd superconnection formalism of \textit{D. Quillen} [Topology 24, 89--95 (1985; Zbl 0569.58030)] to show that orbital integrals are invariant with respect to deformations. Analytic arguments include estimates on heat kernels of hypoelliptic Laplacians, which are proved using probabilistic techniques.