Modular invariance characteristic numbers and \(\eta\) invariants (Q2494189)

The main result of the paper is a new purely analytical proof of the Ochanine and Finashin higher dimensional analogs of the well-known Rokhlin four-dimensional Spin-manifold 16-di\-visibility theorem, and a version of the Alvarez-Gaume and Witten ``miraculous cancellation'' formula for the A-roof genus (which is used in the proof of the Rokhlin-type theorem). In order to put things in context let us consider the following situation. Let \(M\) be a \(8k+4\)-dimensional smooth closed oriented manifold. Assume that the second Stiefel-Whitney class \(w_{2}(M)\) is the mod 2 reduction of an integral cohomology class \(c\); then the Poincare dual of \(c\) (and therefore of \(w_{2}(M)\)) can be represented by a codimension 2 smooth orientable submanifold \(B\); or, more generally, just assume the Poincare dual of \(w_{2}(M)\) is represented by a not necessarily orientable submanifold \(B\). Let \(S(B)\) be the sphere (circle) bundle of the direct sum of the orientation bundle of \(B\) and the trivial line bundle. \(M-B\) is a Spin-manifold (assumed to be equipped with a fixed Spin-structure) and \(S(B)\) with the Spin-structure inherited naturally from \(M-B\) is a \(8k+3\) dimensional Spin-manifold and therefore the boundary of a Spin-manifold \(Z\). Then \(\Phi (B)=\frac{\text{sign}(Z)}{8}\) \(\operatorname{mod}2Z\) is a well-defined invariant of \(B\). Let \(B\cdot B\) be the self intersection of \(B\) in \(M\) (which is an 8k-dimensional submanifold of \(B\)). Then the following Ochanine (\(B\) orientable) and Finashin (\(B\) non-orientable) formula holds: \(\text{sign}(M)-\text{sign}(B\cdot B)=\) \(\Phi (B)\) \(\operatorname{mod}16\). In an earlier paper Liu and Zhang provided a purely analytical definition of the invariant \(\Phi (B)\) (in the case \(B\) non-orientable) in terms of reduced \(\eta \)-invariants: \(\Phi (B)=\sum_{r=0}^{k}2^{6k-6r}\overline{\eta }(\widetilde{D_{B}}^{b_{r}})\) \(\operatorname{mod}2Z\) for certain Dirac-type operators over \(B\). The main aim of the present paper is to give a direct analytical proof of the congruence \(\frac{\text{sign}(M)-\text{sign}(B\cdot B)}{8}=\sum_{r=0}^{k}2^{6k-6r}\overline{\eta }(\widetilde{D_{B}}^{b_{r}})\) \(\operatorname{mod}2Z\). Here is a very brief summary of the proof. First the authors prove a ``miraculous cancellation'' formula for the A-roof genus, which, roughly speaking, enables some lengthy sums involving external forms representing A-roof genus times Chern character of some b undles to be replaced by a simple expression involving only A-roof genus or Hirzebruch L-genus and hyperbolic cosine of the curvature and some auxiliary twisting characteristic form. The \(\text{SL}(2;\mathbb Z)\)-modular forms theory serves as the main tool of the proof. Next the authors provide a link between \(\frac{\text{sign}(M)-\text{sign}(B\cdot B)}{8}\) and the complicated expression that appears in the ``miraculous cancellation'' formula using this formula and Hirzebruch signature theorem; also a \(\operatorname{mod} 2Z\) congruence of the ``complicated expression'' is proved. Now a link between the ``complicated expression'' and the eta-invariants that appear in the Liu-Zhang definition of \(\Phi (B)\) is needed, and this is provided by an earlier result of Zhang that expresses the eta-invariants in terms of the ``complicated expression'' for \(M\) and \(B\). The proof is finished by performing some calculations involving characteristic numbers and some \(\operatorname{mod}2Z\) congruences.