Eta invariant and conformal cobordism (Q2486683)

The paper provides a smooth function (roughly the eta invariant of the signature operator) from the set of conformally flat structures on closed manifolds of a fixed dimension to the multiplicative group of complex numbers of unit length, which is multiplicative under the connected sum operation and descends to a group homomorphism from the conformal cobordism group to the unit circle. The value of the function at a conformally flat manifold \(M\) is an obstruction for \(M\) (with fixed conformal structure) to bound a conformally flat manifold. Here is a little more detailed presentation of the paper. Let \(M_1\), \(M_2\) be smooth closed oriented conformally flat Riemannian manifolds with fixed conformal structures. Call these two manifolds conformally cobordant if at least one of the following two conditions is satisfied: 1. There is a conformally flat manifold \(W\) with \(\partial W= M_1\cup- M_2\) such that the conformal structure on \(W\) extends the conformal structures on \(M_1\) and \(M_2\), and both \(M_1\) and \(M_2\) are totally umbilic submanifolds of \(W\) (that is to say all the eigenvalues of the second fundamental form are equal); 2. \(M_1= M_2\) (this last condition is needed to make the relation of being conformally cobordant an equivalence relation (more precisely reflexive) as \(M\times\langle 0,1\rangle\) with the product metric is in general not conformally flat). Then the eta invariant \(\eta(M)\) of the signature operator is well known to be independent of the Riemannian metric within a fixed conformal structure, and the author proves that \(\eta(M)\bmod Z\) depends only on the conformal cobordism class (proof is based, on the fact that totally umbilic submanifold is totally geodesic with respect to a conformally equivalent metric; next one uses conformal invariance of the \(L\)-genus and the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem (for manifolds with totally geodesic boundary)). Finally, the author defines the function from the set of Riemannian manifolds (of a fixed dimension) to the unit circle by \(\Phi(M)= \exp(2\pi i\eta(M))\). This expression defines a homomorphism \(\Phi\) from the conformal cobordism group to the unit circle by the invariance of the \(\eta\bmod Z\). Moreover, the author proves that the function \(\Phi\) is multiplicative under the connected sum of conformally flat manifolds. The proof of this last fact is based on the additivity of the \(\eta\) invariant.