Eta invariant and holonomy: the even dimensional case (Q2344271)

In 1975, Atiyah-Patodi-Singer established their famous Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem for even dimensional manifolds with boundary and the eta invariant on the boundary appears in the final formula. For odd dimensional manifolds, the index of the Dirac operator vanishes, so the index of the Toeplitz operator is considered by Baum and Douglas. In [J. Funct. Anal. 238, No. 1, 1--26 (2006; Zbl 1114.58011)], the authors established an index theorem of the Toeplitz operator for odd dimensional manifolds with boundary which is the odd version of the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem. In the Dai-Zhang index theorem, an eta invariant on even dimensional manifolds appears. It is a interesting question to give an intrinsic spectral interpretation of the Dai-Zhang eta invariant. In the underlying well-written and very nice paper, the authors address this problem using adiabatic limit technique. A Witten holonomy theorem for the Dai-Zhang eta invariant is also established. In the final remark, the authors give an interesting conjecture on their eta invariant.