Simple Hurwitz groups and eta invariant (Q6199854)

Klein's quartic is a Riemann surface of genus \(g = 3\), its automorphism group \(\mathrm{PSL}(2, \mathbb Z_7)\) is the smallest Hurwitz group (i.e., of maximal possible order \(84(g-1)\)). In a previous paper [Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 126, No. 7, 1945--1947 (1998; Zbl 0894.57019)], the author showed that an automorphism \(\varphi\) of Klein's quartic is \textit{reducible} (in the sense of Thurston's classification of surface homeomorphisms into finite order, reducible and pseudo-Anosov) if and only if the eta invariant of its mapping torus is zero (a closed 3-manifold fibering over the circle with monodromy \(\varphi\) (and a dual Seifert fibration); cf. [\textit{M. F. Atiyah} et al., Math. Proc. Camb. Philos. Soc. 77, 43--69 (1975; Zbl 0297.58008)], for the eta invariant of a closed 3-manifold). In the present paper, the author generalizes this for various classes of simple Hurwitz groups. He first proves that, if \(X\) is a Hurwitz surface with an action of a simple Hurwitz group different from \(\mathrm{PSL}(2, \mathbb Z_7)\), then every automorphism of \(X\) is reducible (as observed also in a paper by the reviewer [``Large finite group actions on surfaces: Hurwitz groups, maximal reducible and maximal handlebody groups, bounding and non-bounding actions'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:2110.11050}], see the Remark in Section 2). The author goes on by showing that, for several infinite classes of simple Hurwitz groups and also for various sporadic simple groups, the eta invariant of a mapping torus of an automorphism is again zero.