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# Eta invariants of homogeneous spaces

## 1. Equivariant $`\eta `$-invariants

We recall some facts about $`\eta `$-invariants and homogeneous spaces from , , . In section 1.3, we compute the infinitesimally equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant for the untwisted Dirac operator and the signature operator on round spheres.

### 1.1. Equivariant $`\eta `$-invariants and their infinitesimal analogues

Let $`(M,g^M)`$ be an oriented Riemannian manifold, and let $`G`$ be a compact group that acts on $`M`$ by isometries. Let $`M`$ be a $`G`$-equivariant Hermitian vector bundle, equipped with a $`G`$-equivariant Clifford multiplication. Let $`^{TM}`$ denote a metric connection on $`M`$, and let $`^{}`$ be a $`G`$-equivariant unitary connection on $``$ that satisfies the Leibniz rule

$$^{}(vs)=^{TM}vs+v^{}s$$

for all vector fields $`v`$ on $`M`$ and all sections $`s\mathrm{\Gamma }()`$. Then $``$ is a $`G`$-equivariant Clifford module over $`M`$, and we have the $`G`$-equivariant Dirac operator

$$\begin{array}{ccccccc}D:\mathrm{\Gamma }()& \stackrel{^{}}{}& \mathrm{\Gamma }(T^{}M)& \stackrel{g^M}{}& \mathrm{\Gamma }(TM)& \stackrel{}{}& \mathrm{\Gamma }().\end{array}$$

The most natural choice for $`^{TM}`$ is the Levi-Civita connection $`^{\mathrm{LC}}`$, however, on homogeneous spaces it is easier to work with the connection $`^{\frac{1}{3}}`$, see section 1.2.

Let $`gG`$, assume $`\mathrm{}ss_0>0`$, and define

$$\eta _g(D,s)=\underset{\lambda }{}\mathrm{sign}(\lambda )\left|\lambda \right|^s\mathrm{tr}\left(g|_{E_\lambda }\right)=_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{t^{\frac{s1}{2}}}{\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(s+\frac{1}{2}\right)}\mathrm{tr}\left(gDe^{tD^2}\right)𝑑t,$$
(1.1)
cf.  and , where $`E_\lambda `$ denotes the Eigenspace of the Eigenvalue $`\lambda `$. The function $`\eta _g(D,s)`$ admits a meromorphic continuation to $``$ that is finite at $`s=0`$, and the equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant of $`D`$ at $`g`$ is given by

$$\eta _g(D)=\eta _g(D,0).$$
(1.2)
If we have chosen $`^{TM}=^{\mathrm{LC}}`$, then the second representation of $`\eta _G(D,s)`$ actually converges at $`s=0`$. The kernel of $`D`$ does not contribute to (1.1); we define

$$h_g(D)=\mathrm{tr}(g|_{\mathrm{ker}D}).$$

To define the infinitesimal analogue of $`\eta _g(D)`$, let $`X𝔤`$ be an element of the Lie algebra of $`G`$, and define the Killing field $`X_M`$ on $`M`$ by

$$X_M|_p=\frac{d}{dt}|_{t=0}e^{tX}p.$$
(1.3)
Let $`_X^{}`$ denote the infinitesimal action of $`X`$ on sections of $``$. We take a Dirac operator $`D`$ associated with the Levi-Civita connection, and we construct deformations of $`D`$ and $`D^2`$ by

$$D_X=D\frac{1}{4}X_M\text{and}H_X=D_X^2+_X^{},$$

where $`X_M`$ acts by Clifford multiplication, see . Then the infinitesimal $`𝔤`$-equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant $`\eta _𝔤(D)[[𝔤^{}]]`$ of $`D`$ is defined as

$$\eta _X(D)=_0^{\mathrm{}}\frac{1}{\sqrt{\pi t}}\mathrm{tr}\left(D_{\frac{X}{t}}e^{tH_{\frac{X}{t}}}\right)𝑑t,$$
(1.4)
see , cf. , . Note that it is conjecturally possible to define $`\eta _𝔤(D)`$ as a function of $`rX`$ for $`X𝔤`$ and $`r`$ sufficiently small, rather than as a formal power series. It is also possible to define a mixed equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant $`\eta _{g,X}(D)`$, where $`gG`$ and $`X𝔤`$ commute; this mixed invariant would then occur in an equivariant index theorem for manifolds with boundary combining Theorem 1.6 (1) and (2), and in an equivariant index theorem for families with compact structure group, cf. Remark 1.7. However, this extra generality is not required for the applications we have in mind.

The equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant and its infinitesimal cousin are key ingredients in theorem 1.6 below, which is due to Atiyah, Patodi, Singer  and Donnelly , and its infinitesimal analogue in , which is related to the family index theorem of Bismut and Cheeger in . Suppose that $`M`$ is the boundary of a compact oriented manifold $`N`$, which has a collar isometric to $`M\times [0,\epsilon ]`$. Suppose that there exists a Clifford module $`\overline{}=\overline{}^+\overline{}^{}N`$, such that $`\overline{}^+|_M`$ with compatible Clifford multiplications. Then the Dirac operator $`D`$ is closely related to the Dirac operator $`\overline{D}`$ acting on sections of $`\overline{}`$.

We also need equivariant characteristic differential forms. The equivariant Riemannian curvature is defined as

$$R_X=\left(^{\mathrm{LC}}2\pi i\iota _{X_M}\right)^2+2\pi i_X^{TM}=R+2\pi i\mu _X^{\mathrm{LC}},$$

where $`\iota _{X_M}`$ denotes interior multiplication of a differential form by $`X_M`$, and $`\mu _X^{\mathrm{LC}}=_X^{TM}_{X_M}^{\mathrm{LC}}`$ is the Riemannian moment. Similarly, define

$$F_X^{}=\left(^{}2\pi i\iota _{X_M}\right)^2+2\pi i_X^{}=F^{}+2\pi i\mu _X^{}.$$

Following , the equivariant twisting curvature of $``$ is defined as

$$F_X^{/𝒮}=F_X^{}\frac{1}{4}\underset{i,j}{}R_Xe_i,e_je_ie_j,$$
(1.5)
where $`e_1`$, …, $`e_n`$ is a local orthonormal frame of $`TM`$, which acts on $``$ by Clifford multiplication. Then we have the equivariant characteristic differential forms

$`\widehat{A}_X(TM,^{\mathrm{LC}})`$ $`=\mathrm{det}^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{R_X/4\pi i}{\mathrm{sinh}(R_X/4\pi i)}}\right)`$
$`\text{and}\mathrm{ch}_X(/𝒮,^{})`$ $`=\mathrm{tr}\left(e^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{F_X^{/𝒮}}{2\pi i}}}\right).`$
Recall that the equivariant exterior derivative is defined as

$$d_X=d2\pi i\iota _{X_M},$$

such that $`d_X^2+2\pi i_X=0`$. Then the forms $`\widehat{A}_X(TM,^{\mathrm{LC}})`$ and $`\mathrm{ch}_X(/𝒮,^{})`$ are $`G`$-invariant, equivariantly closed, and independent of the choice of an equivariant connection up to equivariantly exact forms. Note that in contrast to  and , we use the classical convention of including powers of $`2\pi i`$ in all definitions above. Let $`N_g`$ denote the fixpoint set of $`g`$ on $`N`$.

Let $`\mathrm{ind}_g(\overline{D})=\mathrm{str}(g|_{\mathrm{ker}D})`$ denote the equivariant index of $`\overline{D}`$ (regarded as the character of a virtual $`G`$-representation at $`gG`$) with respect to the APS boundary conditions.

###### 1.6 Theorem (, , ).

Let $`\alpha _g`$ denote the characteristic form on $`N_g`$ given by the constant term in the asymptotic development of $`\mathrm{str}\left(ge^{t\overline{D}^2}\right)`$ for $`t0`$, then

$`\mathrm{ind}_g\left(\overline{D}\right)`$ $`={\displaystyle _{N_g}}\alpha _g(D){\displaystyle \frac{\eta _g(D)+h_g(D)}{2}}.`$ (1)
Assume moreover that $`\overline{D}`$ is associated to the Levi-Civita connection, then so is $`D`$, and

$`\mathrm{ind}_{e^X}\left(\overline{D}\right)`$ $`={\displaystyle _N}\widehat{A}_X(TM,^{\mathrm{LC}})\mathrm{ch}_X(/𝒮,^{}){\displaystyle \frac{\eta _X(D)+h_{e^X}(D)}{2}}.`$ (2)
###### 1.7 Remark.

Theorem 1.6 (2) is in fact a special case of the Bismut-Cheeger index theorem for families of manifolds with boundary in . Suppose that $`PB`$ is a $`G`$-principal bundle with curvature form $`\omega `$ and curvature $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. If we consider the family $`P\times _GNB`$ with boundary $`P\times _GMB`$, then Bismut-Cheeger’s theorem is equivalent to (2) above by the Chern-Weil construction. In particular, we can recover the $`\eta `$-form on $`B`$ of the family of Dirac operators induced by $`D`$ on $`M`$ from $`\eta _X(D)`$.

We now recall the relation between the two equivariant $`\eta `$-invariants introduced in (1.2) and (1.4) above. From the dual of the Killing field $`X_M`$, we construct an equivariant differential form

$$\vartheta _X=\frac{1}{2\pi i}X_M,.$$
(1.8)
For $`X0`$, we have an $`L_1`$-current

$$\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}=_0^{\mathrm{}}\vartheta _Xe^{td_X\vartheta _X}𝑑t$$

on $`M`$ by Proposition 2.2 below. Note that $`\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}`$ has a singularity at the zero set of $`X`$, but for a smooth compactly supported form $`\alpha `$ on $`M`$, the integral $`_M\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\alpha `$ is still well-defined, hence the term “current”. The current $`\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}`$ will be referred to as the Bott localisation defect because of (2.1) below.

###### 1.9 Theorem (, Theorem 0.5).

If the Killing field $`X_M`$ has no zeros on $`M`$, then

$$\eta _{rX}(D)=\eta _{e^{rX}}(D)+2_M\frac{\vartheta _{rX}}{d_{rX}\vartheta _{rX}}\widehat{A}_{rX}(M)\mathrm{ch}_{rX}(/𝒮)[[r]].$$

If there exists a $`G`$-manifold manifold $`N`$ that bounds $`M`$ equivariantly and if there exists a Dirac operator $`\overline{D}`$ on $`N`$ related to $`D`$ as above, then Theorem 1.9 can be proved by comparing Theorem 1.6 (1) and (2) using Kalkman’s localisation formula for manifolds with boundaries (). A general argument is given in .

We will give a formula for the Bott localisation defect in section 2 in the special case that $`M`$ is a homogeneous space of compact type.

### 1.2. Homogeneous spaces

We recall the formula for the equivariant $`\eta `$-invariants of reductive Dirac operators, and its relation to the $`\eta `$-invariants of Riemannian Dirac operators.

Let $`M=G/H`$ be a quotient of compact Lie groups with Lie algebras $`𝔥𝔤`$. Recall that all $`G`$-equivariant vector bundles over $`M=G/H`$ are of the form

$$V^\kappa M=G\times _\kappa V^\kappa M,$$

where $`(\kappa ,V^\kappa )`$ is a representation of $`H`$. We identify sections $`s`$ of $`V^\kappa M`$ with $`H`$-equivariant functions

$$\widehat{s}:GV^\kappa \text{with}\widehat{s}(gh)=\kappa _h^1\widehat{s}(g)$$

such that $`s(gH)=[g,\widehat{s}(g)]`$.

We fix an $`\mathrm{Ad}_G`$-invariant metric on $`𝔤`$ and let $`𝔪=𝔥^{}𝔤`$. Let $`\pi =\mathrm{Ad}|_{H\times 𝔪}`$ denote the isotropy representation of $`H`$ on $`𝔪`$. Then the tangent bundle $`TM`$ is isomorphic to $`G\times _\pi 𝔪`$ via

$$[g,v]=\frac{d}{dt}ge^{tv}$$
(1.10)
and carries an induced normally homogeneous Riemannian metric.

On most bundles $`V^\kappa M`$, we will mainly use the reductive connection $`^0=^{0,\kappa }`$, which can be written as

$$\widehat{_V^0s}=\widehat{V}(\widehat{s}).$$
(1.11)
If $`\kappa `$ is a unitary (orthogonal) representation, then $`^{0,\kappa }`$ is a unitary (orthogonal) connection. A subscript $`𝔥`$ or $`𝔪`$ will denote orthogonal projection to that subspace of $`𝔤`$. One easily calculates the curvature of $`^{0,\kappa }`$ as

$$\widehat{F_{V,W}^{0,\kappa }s}=\kappa _{[\widehat{V},\widehat{W}]_𝔥}\widehat{s}.$$
(1.12)
We consider a family of connections on $`TM`$ given by

$$\widehat{_V^tW}=\widehat{V}(\widehat{W})+t[\widehat{V},\widehat{W}]_𝔪.$$
(1.13)
For $`t=0`$, we obtain again the reductive connection. Note that because the Lie bracket of vector fields on $`M`$ is given by

$$\widehat{[V,W]}=\widehat{V}\left(\widehat{W}\right)\widehat{W}\left(\widehat{V}\right)+[\widehat{V},\widehat{W}]_𝔪,$$

the Levi-Civita connection on $`TM`$ with respect to a normal metric is $`^{\mathrm{LC}}=^{0,\pi }+\frac{1}{2}[,]_𝔪`$.

An equivariant Clifford module over $`M`$ is a $`G`$-equivariant vector bundle $`M`$ together with a $`G`$-equivariant Clifford multiplication $`TM\times `$. We can regard the isotropy representation as a homomorphism $`\pi :𝔥𝔰𝔭𝔦𝔫(𝔪)`$, where $`𝔰𝔭𝔦𝔫(𝔪)`$ denotes the spin group associated to the vector space $`𝔪`$. Let $`n`$ be the dimension of $`M`$, and let $`\stackrel{~}{\pi }`$ denote the pullback of the spin representation of $`𝔰𝔭𝔦𝔫(𝔪)`$ to $`𝔥`$, which acts on a complex $`2^{\left[\frac{n}{2}\right]}`$-dimensional vector space $`S`$. If $`\stackrel{~}{\pi }`$ integrates to an $`H`$-representation, then $`𝒮=G\times _HS`$ is the $`G`$-equivariant spinor bundle (unique if $`H`$ is connected), which is then the most elementary Clifford bundle. In general, every equivariant Clifford module is of the form

$$𝒮^\kappa M=G\times _H\left(SW^\kappa \right)M,$$
(1.14)
where $`\kappa `$ is an $`𝔥`$-representation such that $`\stackrel{~}{\pi }\kappa `$ integrates to an $`H`$-representation (, Lemma 3.4). For example, if $`M`$ is even-dimensional, the complexified bundle of exterior differential forms on $`M`$ is precisely the $`G`$-equivariant Clifford module

$$\mathrm{\Lambda }^{}TM=𝒮^{\stackrel{~}{\pi }}M=G\times _H(SS)M.$$

Let $`𝒮^\kappa MM`$ be a $`G`$-equivariant Clifford module. Following Slebarski , we define a family of Dirac operators on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }(𝒮^\kappa M)`$. For $`X𝔤`$, we define $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{ad}}_{𝔭,X}\mathrm{End}S`$ by

$$\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{ad}}_{𝔭,X}=\frac{1}{4}\underset{i,j}{}[X,e_i],e_je_ie_j,$$

where $`e_i`$, $`e_j`$ run through an orthonormal base of $`𝔪`$. Note that $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{ad}}_{𝔭,X}=\stackrel{~}{\pi }_X`$ for $`X𝔥`$. Then we set

$$\widehat{D^{t,\kappa }s}=\underset{i}{}e_i\left(e_i(\widehat{s})+t\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{ad}}_{𝔭,e_i}\right).$$

For $`t=\frac{1}{2}`$, the operator $`D^\kappa =D^{\frac{1}{2},\kappa }`$ is associated to the Levi-Civita connection on $`𝒮M`$ and the reductive connection on $`V^\kappa M`$ (but these two bundles are in general only locally well defined).

The operator $`\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa =D^{\frac{1}{3},\kappa }`$ has distinguished properties. It was shown in  and ,  that $`\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa `$ exhibits a very natural behaviour with respect to homogeneous fibrations, hence it was called the “reductive” Dirac operator in  (although it is not constructed from the reductive connection on $`S^\kappa M`$).

In order to state the formula for $`\eta _G(\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa )`$, we need some more notation and conventions. We choose maximal tori $`ST`$ of $`HG`$ with Lie algebras $`𝔰𝔱`$, and fix Weyl chambers $`P_Gi𝔱^{}`$ and $`P_Hi𝔰^{}`$. Let $`\mathrm{\Delta }_G^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_H^+`$ denote the corresponding sets of positive roots, and let $`\rho _G`$ and $`\rho _H`$ be their half sums. The choices of $`P_G`$ and $`P_H`$ also determine orientations on $`𝔤/𝔱`$ and $`𝔥/𝔰`$ as follows. If $`\beta _1`$, …, $`\beta _li𝔱^{}`$ are the positive roots of $`𝔤`$ with respect to $`P_G`$, we can choose a complex structure on $`𝔤/𝔱`$ and a complex basis $`z_1`$, …, $`z_n`$ such that $`\mathrm{ad}|_{𝔱\times (𝔤/𝔱)}`$ takes the form

$$\mathrm{ad}_X=\left(\begin{array}{c}\beta _1(X)\\ & \mathrm{}\\ & & \beta _l(X)\end{array}\right)\text{for all }X𝔱\text{.}$$
(1.15)
Then we declare the basis $`z_1`$, $`iz_1`$, $`z_2`$, …, $`iz_l`$ of $`𝔤/𝔱`$ as a real vector space to be positive oriented. The orientation of $`H/S`$ is constructed similarly.

If we fix an orientation on $`𝔪=𝔤/𝔥`$ and choose orientations on $`𝔤/𝔱`$ and $`𝔥/𝔰`$ as above, there is a unique orientation on $`𝔱/𝔰`$ such that the two induced orientations on

$$𝔤/𝔰𝔪(𝔥/𝔰)(𝔤/𝔱)(𝔱/𝔰)$$
(1.16)
agree. We assume for the moment that $`\mathrm{rk}G=\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, so $`𝔰^{}𝔱`$ is one-dimensional. Let $`E𝔱/𝔰𝔰^{}`$ be the positive unit vector, and let $`\delta i𝔱^{}`$ be the unique weight such that

$$i\delta (E)>0\text{and}\delta (X)2\pi ie^XS$$
(1.17)
for all $`X𝔱`$.

By abuse of notation, let $`\kappa i𝔰^{}`$ denote the highest weight of the $`𝔥`$-representation $`\kappa `$ used to construct $`𝒮^\kappa M`$. Then there is a unique weight $`\alpha i𝔱^{}`$ of $`𝔤`$ such that

$$\alpha |_𝔰=\kappa +\rho _H\text{and}i(\alpha \delta )(E)<0i\alpha (E).$$
(1.18)
Let $`A_G`$ denote the alternating sum over the Weyl group of $`G`$ acting on $`𝔱`$, and write $`A_G(\rho _G)`$ shorthand for $`A_G(e^{\rho _G()})`$. Recall that for $`X𝔱`$, $`e^XT`$ is regular iff $`A_G(\rho _G)(X)0`$. We can now compute the classical equivariant eta-invariant of $`\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa `$.

###### 1.19 Theorem (, ).

If $`\mathrm{rk}G\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, then $`\eta _G(\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa )=0`$ identically . If $`\mathrm{rk}G=\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, then $`\eta _G(\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa )`$ is continuous on the set $`T_0T`$ that acts freely on $`M`$. Moreover, if $`\alpha `$, $`\delta i𝔰^{}`$ and $`E𝔱`$ are given as above, then for all $`X𝔱`$ such that $`e^XT_0`$ and $`e^X`$ is regular,

$$(\eta +h)_{e^X}\left(\stackrel{~}{D}_M^\kappa \right)=\frac{A_G\left(\frac{1}{\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\delta }{2}()\right)}e^{(\alpha \frac{\delta }{2})()}\right)}{A_G(\rho _G)}(X).$$

### 1.3. Round Spheres

As an example for our main result, we compute the infinitesimally equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant of the untwisted Dirac operator and the odd signature operator for odd-dimensional spheres. Note that for a symmetric space, the last two terms in Theorem 2.33 (1) and (2) vanish, so in particular, we do not have to integrate equivariant Chern-Simons classes.

Fix $`n`$ and embed $`G=\mathrm{Spin}(2n)\mathrm{Cl}(2n)`$. We let $`H=\mathrm{Spin}(2n1)`$ denote the subgroup belonging to the Clifford subalgebra spanned by the vectors $`e_1`$, …, $`e_{2n1}`$ of an orthonormal base of $`^{2n}`$. Then we can write $`S^{2n1}=G/H`$.

We choose the maximal tori $`SH`$ and $`TG`$ with Lie algebras

$`𝔱`$ $`=\left\{X=\frac{x_1}{2}e_1e_2+\mathrm{}+\frac{x_n}{2}e_{2n1}e_{2n}\right|(x_1,\mathrm{}x_n)^n\}`$
$`\text{and}𝔰`$ $`=\{X𝔱x_n=0\}.`$
We also choose Weyl chambers

$`P_G`$ $`=\left\{i(\gamma _1x^1+\mathrm{}+\gamma _nx^n)\right|\gamma _1\mathrm{}\gamma _{n1}\left|\gamma _n\right|\}`$
$`\text{and}P_H`$ $`=\left\{i(\gamma _1x^1+\mathrm{}+\gamma _{n1}x^{n1})\right|\gamma _1\mathrm{}\gamma _{n1}0\}.`$
Then we have

$`\begin{array}{cc}\hfill \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+& =\left\{i(x_j\pm x_k)\right|1j<kn\}\hfill \\ \hfill \text{and}\mathrm{\Delta }_H^+& =\left\{i(x_j\pm x_k)\right|1j<kn1\}\left\{ix_j\right|1jn1\}.\hfill \end{array}`$ (1.20)
We fix $`\delta (X)=ix_n`$ in (1.17), so that $`S^{2n1}`$ is now oriented by (1.15) and (1.16).

###### 1.21 Theorem.

For $`X=(x_1,\mathrm{},x_n)𝔱`$ as above, the infinitesimally equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant of the untwisted Dirac operator $`D`$ and the odd signature operator $`B=D^{\stackrel{~}{\pi }}`$ of the odd spheres are given by

$`\eta _X\left(D_{S^{2n1}}\right)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{i^n}{2^{n1}\mathrm{sin}\frac{x_1}{2}\mathrm{}\mathrm{sin}\frac{x_n}{2}}}\left(1{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{x_j}}\mathrm{sin}{\displaystyle \frac{x_j}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{kj}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_k^2}{x_k^2x_j^2}}\right),`$ (1)
$`\eta _X\left(B_{S^{2n1}}\right)`$ $`=i^n\mathrm{cot}{\displaystyle \frac{x_1}{2}}\mathrm{}\mathrm{cot}{\displaystyle \frac{x_n}{2}}\left(1{\displaystyle \underset{j=1}{\overset{n}{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{2}{x_j}}\mathrm{tan}{\displaystyle \frac{x_j}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{kj}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{x_k^2}{x_k^2x_j^2}}\right).`$ (2)
Note that these formulas have been proved by Zhang for $`S^1`$ in  and for $`S^3`$ by the author in . For other symmetric spaces, one can similarly compute $`\eta _X(D)`$ and $`\eta _X(B)`$ using the formulas for the equivariant $`\eta `$-invariants in , .

###### Proof.

The classical equivariant $`\eta `$-invariants of $`B`$ and $`D`$ have been calculated in  and . Let us start with the untwisted Dirac operator. We take $`X𝔱`$ as above. By , we have

$$\eta _{e^X}\left(D_{S^{2n1}}\right)=\frac{i^n}{2^{n1}\mathrm{sin}\frac{x_1}{2}\mathrm{}\mathrm{sin}\frac{x_n}{2}}.$$

Let $`W_\pi ^+`$ denote the positive weights of the isotropy representation $`\pi `$, which are all of multiplicity one in our case. With (1.20) and $`\delta (X)=ix_n`$, we calculate

$$\frac{1}{\delta (X)}\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}\frac{\beta (X|_𝔰)}{\beta (X)}\underset{\beta W_\pi ^+}{}\frac{1}{2\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\beta }{2}(X|_𝔰)\right)}=\frac{i}{x_n}\underset{k=1}{\overset{n1}{}}\frac{x_k^2}{(x_k^2x_n^2)}\underset{k=1}{\overset{n1}{}}\frac{i}{2\mathrm{sin}\frac{x_k}{2}}.$$

Note that the sum $`S_{G/H}`$ over $`W_G/W_H`$ of (2.29) contains $`n`$ similar terms, where $`x_n`$ above is replaced by $`x_j`$ for $`j=1`$, …, $`n`$. Because the last two terms in Theorem 2.33 (2) drop out for a symmetric space, we get (1). The proof of (2) is similarly based on the formula for $`\eta _{e^X}(B)`$ in  and Corollary 2.34. ∎

## 2. The Bott localisation defect

The difference between the classical equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant of  and the infinitesimal equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant of  can be expressed in terms of the Bott localisation defect as in Theorem 1.9, see . In this section, we prove a fibration formula for the Bott localisation defect, which is then applied to homogeneous spaces.

### 2.1. A fibration formula

Let $`𝒩_{M_X,M}`$ denote the normal bundle to the zero set $`M_X`$ of the Killing field $`X_M`$ on $`M`$, and let $`e_X\left(𝒩_{M_X,M}\right)`$ denote its equivariant Euler class. Bott’s localisation formula in equivariant cohomology in the local version of  states that any equivariantly closed form $`\alpha _X\mathrm{\Omega }_𝔤(M)`$ is equivariantly cohomologous to the current

$$\frac{\delta _{M_X}\alpha _X}{e_X\left(𝒩_{M_X,M}\right)}$$

for small $`X𝔤`$. Here, $`\delta _{M_X}`$ denotes the $`\delta `$-distribution at the fixpoint set of $`X`$. It follows from Berline-Vergne’s proof in  that in fact

$$\alpha _X\frac{\delta _{M_X}\alpha _X}{e_X\left(𝒩_{M_X,M}\right)}=d_X\left(\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\alpha _X\right),$$
(2.1)
where $`\vartheta _X=\frac{1}{2\pi i}X_M^{}`$ as in (1.8). The current $`\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}`$ also appears in a localisation formula for manifolds with boundary in . In this section, we state some properties of $`\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}`$. In particular, we give a formula for fibre bundles. Let us begin with the following observation, which holds for arbitrary Riemannian manifolds $`M`$ with an isometric action by a Lie group $`G`$.

###### 2.2 Proposition.

If we set $`\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}|_{M_X}=0`$, then the current $`\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}`$ is locally of class $`L_1`$. In particular, if $`\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }^{}(M)`$ is continuous and compactly supported, then

$$_M\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\alpha =_0^{\mathrm{}}\left(_M\vartheta _Xe^{td_X\vartheta _X}\alpha \right)𝑑t.$$

In particular, both integrals exist.

###### Proof.

Because

$$d_X\vartheta _X=\frac{1}{2\pi i}dX_M^{}X_M^2,$$

it is clear that $`\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}`$ is integrable on each compact subset of $`MM_X`$. Also, the equation above holds for all $`\alpha `$ with compact support in $`MM_X`$.

Because $`X_M`$ is a Killing field, the zero set $`M_X`$ is a totally geodesic submanifold of $`M`$. Let $`𝒩M_X`$ denote the normal bundle, then the Levi-Civita connection on $`M`$ restricts to a connection $`^𝒩`$ on $`𝒩`$, and the infinitesimal action $`\mu _X^𝒩`$ of $`X`$ is parallel with respect to $`^𝒩`$. The normal exponential map $`\mathrm{exp}^{}:𝒩M`$ is a local diffeomorphism near the zero section in $`𝒩`$, and

$$e^{tX}\mathrm{exp}^{}V=\mathrm{exp}^{}\left(e^{t\mu _X^𝒩}V\right)$$

for all vectors $`V𝒩`$.

Let $``$ denote the vector field near $`M_X`$ given by

$$|_{\mathrm{exp}^{}V}=\frac{d}{dt}|_{t=1}\mathrm{exp}^{}tV,$$

and set $`r=\left|\right|`$ near $`M_X`$. To estimate the behaviour of $`dX_M^{}`$ and $`X_M^2`$ near $`M_X`$, we need some facts.

Because $`X_M`$ is a Killing field, it satisfies $`X_M^2>cr^2`$ near $`M_X`$ for some $`c>0`$. Cartan’s formula for the exterior derivative implies that

$$\left(dX_M^{}\right)(V,W)=2_VX,W.$$

Now let $`V`$ be a vector field on $`M`$ near $`M_X`$ that is tangential to $`M_X`$ and parallel along all radial geodesics emanating from and perpendicular to $`M_X`$. Let $`Y`$, $`Z`$ be a vector fields normal to $`M_X`$ with $`_YZ=0`$, then

$$\begin{array}{c}X_M,V|_{M_X}=0,\left(YX_M,V\right)|_{M_X}=\mu _X^𝒩V,Y=0,\\ \text{and}Y\left(ZX_M,V\right)|_{M_X}=R_{Y,V}X_M\left(_V\mu _X^𝒩\right)(Y),Z|_{M_X}=0\end{array}$$
(2.3)
implies that

$$\iota _VdX_M^{}Cr^2\text{and}X_M,VCr^3$$

for some $`C>0`$.

We choose a local orthonormal frame $`e_1`$, …, $`e_n`$ near $`M_X`$ that is parallel along radial geodesics emanating from $`M_X`$, such that $`e_1`$, …, $`e_{2k}`$ are normal to $`M_X`$ and $`e_{2k+1}`$, …, $`e_n`$ are tangential. Then

$$\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}=\frac{1}{2\pi i}\frac{X_M^{}}{X_M^2\frac{dX_M^{}}{2\pi i}}=\underset{j=0}{\overset{\left[\frac{n1}{2}\right]}{}}(2\pi i)^{j1}\frac{X_M^{}(dX_M^{})^j}{X_M^{2j+2}}=O(r^{12k})$$
(2.4)
near $`M_X`$, so the left hand side integral in Proposition 2.2 exists.

It also follows from (2.4) that we may write

$$_0^{\mathrm{}}\left(_M\vartheta _Xe^{td_X\vartheta _X}\alpha \right)𝑑t=_M\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\alpha \underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}_M\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}e^{td_X\vartheta _X}\alpha .$$
(2.5)
Let $`U_t`$ be the tubular neighbourhood of $`M_X`$ of radius $`t^{\frac{1}{4}}`$ for $`t0`$. Because $`X_M^2cr^2`$, one has

$$\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}_{MU_t}\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}e^{td_X\vartheta _X}\alpha =0,$$
(2.6)
so the rightmost term in (2.5) localises near $`M_X`$.

We identify $`U_t`$ with the neighbourhood $`𝒩_t`$ of radius $`t^{\frac{1}{4}}`$ by a rescaled normal exponential map

$$v\phi _t(v)=\mathrm{exp}^{}\left(t^{\frac{1}{2}}v\right).$$
(2.7)
Using (2.3), one finds that if $`A=\mu _X^𝒩\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{End}𝒩)`$, then as $`t\mathrm{}`$,

$$\begin{array}{c}t\phi _t^{}X_M^{}A,,t\phi _t^{}dX_M^{}2A,,\\ \text{and}t\phi _t^{}X_M^2A^2\end{array}$$
(2.8)
uniformly on $`𝒩_t`$, with respect to the canonical metric on the total space of $`𝒩M_X`$. Moreover,

$$\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}\phi _t^{}\alpha =\pi ^{}\alpha $$

is the pullback of $`\alpha `$ by the bundle projection $`\pi :𝒩M_X`$, because $`\alpha `$ is of class $`C^0`$. Using (2.6), this allows us to compute

$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}_M\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}e^{td_X\vartheta _X}\alpha \hfill \\ \hfill \begin{array}{cc}& =\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}_{𝒩_t}\underset{j,k}{}(2\pi i)^{jk1}\frac{t\phi _t^{}X_M^{}(t\phi _t^{}dX_M^{})^{j+k}}{\left(t\phi _t^{}X_M^2\right)^{j+1}k!}e^{t\phi _t^{}X_M^2}\phi _t^{}\alpha \hfill \\ & =\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}_𝒩\underset{j,k}{}(2\pi i)^{jk1}\frac{A,2A,^{j+k}}{A^{2j+2}k!}e^{A^2}\pi ^{}\alpha \hfill \\ & =0.\hfill \end{array}\end{array}$$
(2.9)
This proves the existence of the right hand side integral in Proposition 2.2. Together with (2.5), we obtain the claimed equality. ∎

###### 2.10 Theorem.

Let $`p:MB`$ be a proper Riemannian submersion, and let $`G`$ be a compact Lie group of isometries of $`M`$ that map fibres to fibres. Then

$$\frac{\vartheta _X^M}{d_X^M\vartheta _X^M}=p^{}\left(\frac{\vartheta _X^B}{d_X^B\vartheta _X^B}\right)+p^{}\left(\frac{\delta _{B_X}}{e_X(𝒩_{B_X,B})}\right)\frac{\vartheta _X^M}{d_X^M\vartheta _X^M}$$

as $`L_1`$-currents for any $`X𝔤`$ modulo $`d_X`$-exact currents.

The first term on the right hand side gives the horizontal part of the Bott localisation defect. The second term is a localisation of the localisation defect to the fibres over the zero set $`B_X`$ of $`X_B`$ on $`B`$. Note that the Killing vector field $`X_M`$ on $`M`$ is tangential to these fibres. We can rephrase Theorem 2.10 as follows. For all compactly supported continuous forms $`\alpha \mathrm{\Omega }^{}(M)`$, we have

$$_M\frac{\vartheta _X^M}{d_X^M\vartheta _X^M}\alpha =_B\frac{\vartheta _X^B}{d_X^B\vartheta _X^B}_{M/B}\alpha +_B\frac{\delta _{B_X}}{e_X(𝒩_{B_X,B})}_{p^1(B_X)/B_X}\frac{\vartheta _X^M}{d_X^M\vartheta _X^M}\alpha .$$

If $`X_B`$ is not identically zero, this reduces the computation of the left hand side to the computation of integrals over manifolds of smaller dimension.

###### Proof.

By Proposition 2.2,

$$\frac{\vartheta _X^M}{d_X^M\vartheta _X^M}\alpha _X=_0^{\mathrm{}}\vartheta _X^Me^{td_X^M\vartheta _X^M}\alpha _X𝑑t.$$

Using the vertical tangent bundle $`TF`$ and the equivariant horizontal distribution $`=(TF)^{}TM`$, we decompose $`\vartheta _X=\vartheta _X^h+\vartheta _X^v\mathrm{\Gamma }(^{})\mathrm{\Gamma }(T^{}F)`$. If $`G`$ maps fibres to fibres, then clearly

$$\vartheta _X^h=\frac{1}{2\pi i}p_{}X_M,p_{}=\frac{1}{2\pi i}p^{}X_B,=p^{}\vartheta _X^B,$$

hence $`\vartheta _X^M=p^{}\vartheta _X^B+\vartheta _X^v`$.

Regard the manifold $`\overline{M}=M\times (0,\mathrm{})^2`$, where the action of the Killing field $`X`$ is extended trivially to $`\overline{M}`$. Then the form

$$\beta _X=e^{d_X^{\overline{M}}\left(sp^{}\vartheta _X^B+t\vartheta _X^v\right)}=\left(1p^{}\vartheta _X^Bds\right)\left(1\vartheta _X^vdt\right)e^{sp^{}d_X^B\vartheta _X^B+td_X^M\vartheta _X^v}$$

is closed on $`\overline{M}`$. For $`0<TS`$ consider the domain

$$\mathrm{\Omega }=\left\{(s,t)\right|0tT\text{ and }tsS\},$$

and let $`\mathrm{\Gamma }=\mathrm{\Gamma }_1\mathrm{\Gamma }_2\mathrm{\Gamma }_3\mathrm{\Gamma }_4`$ denote the contour $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, where $`s=t`$ on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_1`$, $`t=0`$ on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_2`$, $`s=S`$ on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_3`$, and $`t=T`$ on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_4`$. It follows from the equivariant Stokes theorem that integrating $`\beta _X`$ over $`\mathrm{\Gamma }`$ produces a $`d_X`$-exact current on $`M`$. We will consider the limits $`S\mathrm{}`$ and $`T\mathrm{}`$ in that order to prove Theorem 2.10.

Let $`I_j^0=_{\mathrm{\Gamma }_j}\beta _X`$ for $`j=1`$, …, $`4`$, then clearly

$`\begin{array}{cc}\hfill I_1^0& ={\displaystyle _{\mathrm{\Gamma }_1}}\beta _X={\displaystyle _0^T}\vartheta _X^Me^{td_X^M\vartheta _X^M}𝑑t,\hfill \\ \hfill I_1^1& =\underset{S\mathrm{}}{lim}I_1^0=I_1^0,\hfill \\ \hfill \text{and}I_1^2& =\underset{T\mathrm{}}{lim}I_1^1={\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _X^M}{d_X^M\vartheta _X^M}}\hfill \end{array}`$ (2.11)
by Proposition 2.2. Similarly,

$`\begin{array}{cc}\hfill I_2^0& ={\displaystyle _{\mathrm{\Gamma }_2}}\beta _X={\displaystyle _0^S}p^{}\vartheta _X^Be^{sp^{}d_X^B\vartheta _X^B}𝑑s,\hfill \\ \hfill I_2^1& =\underset{S\mathrm{}}{lim}I_2^0=p^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _X^B}{d_X^B\vartheta _X^B}}\right),\hfill \\ \hfill \text{and}I_2^2& =\underset{T\mathrm{}}{lim}I_2^1=I_2^1.\hfill \end{array}`$ (2.12)
For the term $`I_3^0`$, we use that $`e^{Sd_X^B\vartheta _X^B}`$ forces localisation on the zero set $`B_X`$ of $`X_B`$ in the limit $`S\mathrm{}`$, see . This gives

$`\begin{array}{cc}\hfill I_3^0& ={\displaystyle _{\mathrm{\Gamma }_3}}\beta _X={\displaystyle _0^T}\vartheta _X^ve^{Sp^{}d_X^B\vartheta _X^B+td_M\vartheta _X^v}𝑑t,\hfill \\ \hfill I_3^1& =\underset{S\mathrm{}}{lim}I_3^0=p^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\delta _{B_X}}{e_X\left(𝒩_{B_X,B}\right)}}\right){\displaystyle _0^T}\vartheta _X^Me^{td_M\vartheta _X^M}𝑑t,\hfill \\ \hfill \text{and}I_3^2& =\underset{T\mathrm{}}{lim}I_3^1=p^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\delta _{B_X}}{e_X\left(𝒩_{B_X,B}\right)}}\right){\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _X^M}{d_X^M\vartheta _X^M}}.\hfill \end{array}`$ (2.13)
The remaining term and its limit as $`S\mathrm{}`$ are easily computed as

$`\begin{array}{cc}\hfill I_4^0& ={\displaystyle _{\mathrm{\Gamma }_4}}\beta _X=e^{Td_X^M\vartheta _X^M}{\displaystyle _0^{ST}}p^{}\vartheta _X^Be^{sp^{}d_X^B\vartheta _X^B}𝑑s,\hfill \\ \hfill \text{and}I_4^1& =\underset{S\mathrm{}}{lim}I_4^0=p^{}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _X^B}{d_X^B\vartheta _X^B}}\right)e^{Td_X^M\vartheta _X^M}.\hfill \end{array}`$ (2.14)
Then as in (2.6) above, the current $`I_4^1`$ localises near $`M_X`$ as $`T\mathrm{}`$, and the limit $`I_4^2`$ of $`I_4^1`$ as $`T\mathrm{}`$ can be computed using a rescaling argument.

Let $`𝒩=𝒩_{M_X,M}`$ denote the normal bundle to $`M_X`$ in $`M`$. We still identify the tubular neighbourhood $`U_t`$ of $`M_X`$ of radius $`t^{\frac{1}{4}}`$ for $`t=T0`$ with the neighbourhood $`𝒩_t`$ of radius $`t^{\frac{1}{4}}`$ by the rescaled normal exponential map $`\phi _t:𝒩_tU_t`$ of (2.7). Define $`A\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{End}𝒩)`$ as above, then (2.8) holds unchanged. Similarly, let $`A_0\mathrm{\Gamma }(\mathrm{End}𝒩)`$ denote the horizontal lift of the action of $`\mu _X^{𝒩_{B_X/B}}`$ on $`𝒩_{B_X/B}`$, then the analogue of (2.8) implies that

$$t\phi _t^{}p^{}X_B^{}A_0,,t\phi _t^{}p^{}dX_B^{}2A_0,,$$

$$\text{and}t\phi _t^{}p^{}X_B^2A_0^2$$

uniformly on $`𝒩_t`$.

In analogy with (2.9), we calculate for any continuous form $`\alpha `$ that

$$\begin{array}{c}\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}_Mp^{}\left(\frac{\vartheta _X^B}{d_X^B\vartheta _X^B}\right)e^{td_X^M\vartheta _X^M}\alpha \hfill \\ \hfill \begin{array}{cc}& =\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}_{𝒩_t}\underset{j,k}{}\phi _t^{}p^{}\left(\frac{tX_B^{}(tdX_B^{})^j}{(2\pi itX_B^2)^{j+1}}\right)\frac{(t\phi _t^{}dX_M^{})^k}{(2\pi i)^kk!}e^{t\phi _t^{}X_M^2}\phi _t^{}\alpha \hfill \\ & =\underset{t\mathrm{}}{lim}_𝒩\underset{j,k}{}\frac{A_0,2A_0,^j2A,^k}{(2\pi i)^{j+k+1}A_0^{2j+2}k!}e^{A^2}\pi ^{}\alpha \hfill \\ & =0.\hfill \end{array}\end{array}$$

With (2.14), this implies that

$$I_4^2=\underset{T\mathrm{}}{lim}I_4^1=0.$$

Theorem 2.10 follows from (2.11)–(2.13), because $`X_1^2+X_2^2+X_3^2+X_4^2`$ is exact. ∎

### 2.2. The Bott localisation defect on $`G/H`$

Let $`GKS`$ be compact Lie groups, then

$$\begin{array}{ccc}P=K/S& & E=G/S\\ & & p& & \\ & & Q=G/K\end{array}$$
(2.15)
is a $`G`$-equivariant fibration. The left and the right hand triangle in the following diagram represent two such equivariant fibrations with $`K=T`$ and $`K=H`$, respectively.

$$\begin{array}{ccc}& & G\\ & \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}\\ T& & |& & H\\ & \mathrm{}& & \mathrm{}\\ & & S\end{array}$$
(2.16)
We apply Theorem 2.10 to these fibrations to compute

$$_{G/H}\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\widehat{A}_X(T(G/H),^{\mathrm{LC}})\mathrm{ch}_X(/𝒮,^{}).$$

Together with the formula for $`\eta _{e^X}(\stackrel{~}{D})+h_{e^X}(\stackrel{~}{D})`$ in , , we obtain a formula for $`\eta (D)+h(D)`$ up to a possible contribution in $`2`$ coming from the spectral flow.

Recall the definition of $`X_E`$ for $`X𝔤`$ in (1.3). With the notation of (1.10), we represent $`X_E`$ by $`\widehat{X}:G𝔢=𝔰^{}`$ with

$$\widehat{X}_E(g)=\left(\mathrm{Ad}_g^1X\right)_𝔢.$$

The Lie derivative $`_X^\kappa `$ acts on $`V^\kappa E`$ by

$$\widehat{_X^\kappa s}=\frac{d}{dt}|_{t=0}\widehat{s}\left(e^{tX}g\right)=\left(\mathrm{Ad}_g^1X\right)\left(\widehat{s}\right),$$

so the moment of $`X`$ with respect to the reductive connection is simply

$$\widehat{\mu _X^{0,\kappa }s}=\widehat{_X^\kappa s}\widehat{_{X_E}^{0,\kappa }s}=\left(\mathrm{Ad}_g^1X\right)_𝔥\left(\widehat{s}\right)=\kappa _{\left(\mathrm{Ad}_g^1X\right)_𝔥}\widehat{s}.$$
(2.17)
The equivariant curvature of $`^{0,\kappa }`$ is then given by

$$F_X^{0,\kappa }=\left(^{0,\kappa }2\pi i\iota _{X_E}\right)^2+2\pi i_X^\kappa =F^{0,\kappa }+2\pi i\mu _X^{0,\kappa }=\kappa _{\left([,]_𝔥+2\pi i(\mathrm{Ad}_g^1X)_𝔥\right)}.$$
(2.18)
We will assume that $`=𝒮^\kappa EE`$ is constructed as in (1.14). If we regard the Dirac operator $`D^\kappa =D^{\frac{1}{2},\kappa }`$ on $`𝒮^\kappa E`$, then the equivariant twisting curvature in (1.5) is just the equivariant curvature of the reductive connection on $`V^\kappa E`$ (even if this bundle does not exist globally), so formally

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{ch}_X(/𝒮,^{})=\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa E,^0)\hfill \\ \hfill =\mathrm{tr}_{V^\kappa }\left(e^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{\kappa _{[,]_𝔥}}{2\pi i}}\kappa _{\left(\mathrm{Ad}_g^1X\right)_𝔥}}\right)=\chi _H^\kappa \left(e^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{[,]_𝔥}{2\pi i}}(\mathrm{Ad}_g^1X)_𝔥}\right).\end{array}$$
(2.19)
Let $`PEQ`$ be an equivariant fibration as in (2.15) with $`K=H`$, so the fibre $`P=H/S`$ is a flag manifold. An $`\mathrm{Ad}_G`$-invariant metric on $`𝔤`$ induces a normal metric on $`E`$ such that $`p`$ is an equivariant Riemannian submersion. We write $`𝔭=𝔰^{}𝔥`$ and $`𝔮=𝔥^{}`$, so $`𝔢=𝔭𝔮`$. By $`\mathrm{Ad}_G`$-invariance, the isotropy representation of $`E`$ splits as $`\pi =\phi \iota ^{}\psi `$, where $`\phi `$ and $`\psi `$ are the isotropy representations of $`P`$ and $`Q`$, and $`\iota :SH`$ is the inclusion. Thus the tangent bundle $`TE`$ of the total space splits naturally as $`p^{}TQTP`$ with vertical tangent bundle $`TP=G\times _S𝔭`$ and horizontal complement $`p^{}TQ=G\times _S𝔮`$.

We define $`^{\lambda ,P}`$, $`^{\mu ,Q}`$ as in (1.13) above, regarding $`^{\lambda ,P}`$ as a connection on the vertical tangent bundle $`TPE`$. Then

$$\widehat{_U^{\lambda ,P}Y}=\widehat{U}(\widehat{Y})+\lambda [\widehat{U},\widehat{Y}]_𝔭\text{and}\widehat{_V^{\mu ,Q}W}=\widehat{V}(\widehat{W})+\mu [\widehat{V},\widehat{W}]_𝔮$$

for $`S`$-equivariant $`\widehat{U}:G𝔢`$, $`\widehat{Y}:G𝔭`$ and $`H`$-equivariant $`\widehat{V}`$, $`\widehat{W}:G𝔮`$.

Let $`\kappa 𝔰`$ be a weight of $`𝔥`$, and consider the bundle $`V^{\kappa +\rho _H}PP`$ associated to the $`S`$-representation with highest weight $`\kappa +\rho _H`$. Note that this bundle lives on the universal cover of $`P=H/S`$. However, its equivariant Chern form $`\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}P,^0)`$ descends to $`P`$, even if $`P`$ is not simply connected. Similarly, the character $`\chi _H^\kappa (e^X)`$ is well-defined in terms of $`X𝔥`$ even if $`\chi _H^\kappa `$ is maybe not defined as a function on $`H`$. Bott’s localisation formula and the equivariant index theorem imply that

$$\chi _H^\kappa \left(e^X\right)=_P\widehat{A}_X(TP,^{\lambda ,P})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}P,^0),$$
(2.20)
see , Section 8.2.

The curvature $`F^{\lambda ,P}`$ and the moment $`\mu _X^{\lambda ,P}`$ on $`E`$ are given by

$`\widehat{F_{V,W}^{\lambda ,P}Y}`$ $`=\phi _{[\widehat{V},\widehat{W}]_𝔰}\widehat{Y}\lambda [[\widehat{V},\widehat{W}]_𝔭,\widehat{Y}]_𝔭+\lambda ^2[\widehat{V},[\widehat{W},\widehat{Y}]_𝔭]_𝔭\lambda ^2[\widehat{W},[\widehat{V},\widehat{Y}]_𝔭]_𝔭`$
$`\text{and}\widehat{\mu _X^{\lambda ,P}Y}`$ $`=\phi _{(\mathrm{Ad}_h^1X)_𝔰}\widehat{Y}+\lambda [(\mathrm{Ad}_h^1X)_𝔭,\widehat{y}]_𝔭.`$
Using these equations, one checks that the equivariant curvature of the connection $`^{\lambda ,P}`$ and the Killing field $`X`$ on $`E`$ is formally the same as the equivariant curvature of $`^{\lambda ,P}`$ and the Killing field $`\mathrm{Ad}_h\frac{[_𝔮,_𝔮]_𝔥}{2\pi i}+X`$, considered only on $`P`$. By (2.19) and (2.20), this gives

$$\begin{array}{c}\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa Q,^0)=_P\widehat{A}_{\mathrm{Ad}_h{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{[_𝔮,_𝔮]_𝔥}{2\pi i}}+X}(TP,^{\lambda ,P})\mathrm{ch}_{\mathrm{Ad}_h{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{[_𝔮,_𝔮]_𝔥}{2\pi i}}+X}(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}P,^0)\hfill \\ \hfill =_{E/Q}\widehat{A}_X(TP,^{\lambda ,P})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0),\end{array}$$
(2.21)
where we integrate over the fibres of $`EQ`$ in the last line.

Let $`p^{}^{\mu ,Q}^{\lambda ,P}`$ denote the product connection on $`TE=p^{}TQTF`$. By multiplicativity of the $`\widehat{A}`$-form, we have

$$\widehat{A}_X(TE,p^{}^{\mu ,Q}^{\lambda ,P})=p^{}\widehat{A}_X(TQ,^{\mu ,Q})\widehat{A}_X(TP,^{\lambda ,P}).$$

Now, Theorem 2.10 and equation (2.21) have the following implication.

###### 2.22 Proposition.

Let $`GH`$ be compact Lie groups, and let $`SH`$ be a maximal torus. If the Killing field $`X_Q`$ has no zeros, then for any $`\lambda `$ and $`\mu `$,

$$\begin{array}{c}\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\widehat{A}_X(TQ,^{\mu ,Q})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa Q,^0)\hfill \\ \hfill =_{E/Q}\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\widehat{A}_X(TE,p^{}^{\mu ,Q}^{\lambda ,P})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0).\mathit{}\end{array}$$

To evaluate the right hand side of Proposition 2.22, we now consider the left triangle in (2.16). In particular, $`TG`$ is a maximal torus containing $`S`$. We assume in addition that $`X`$ is regular. Then the only fixed points of $`X`$ on $`G/T`$ are the isolated fixpoints $`wT/T`$. In particular, the normal bundle to $`N_G(T)/T`$ in $`G/T`$ is just the tangent bundle $`T(G/T)`$, and its equivariant Euler form is invertible near $`N_G(T)/T`$. We find by Proposition 2.22 that

$$\begin{array}{c}_Q\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\widehat{A}_X(TQ,^{\mu ,Q})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa Q,^0)\hfill \\ \hfill =_E\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TE,^0,p^{}^{\mu ,Q}^{\lambda ,P})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0)\\ \hfill +_E\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\widehat{A}_X(TE,^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0).\end{array}$$

Applying Theorem 2.10 once more gives

$$\begin{array}{c}_Q\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\widehat{A}_X(TQ,^{\mu ,Q})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa Q,^0)\hfill \\ \hfill \begin{array}{cc}& =_E\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TE,^0,p^{}^{\mu ,Q}^{\lambda ,P})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0)\hfill \\ & +_{G/T}\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}_{E/(G/T)}\widehat{A}_X(TE,^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0)\hfill \\ & +_{G/T}\frac{\delta _{N_G(T)/T}}{e_X\left(T(G/T)\right)}_{N_G(T)/S}\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\widehat{A}_X(TE,^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0)\hfill \end{array}\end{array}$$
(2.23)
We can still simplify this expression. First of all, the reductive connection respects the splitting $`TEp^{}TQTP`$. We can thus fix $`\lambda =0`$ and rewrite the first term of the right hand side of (2.23) as

$$\begin{array}{c}_E\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TE,^0,p^{}^{\mu ,Q}^{0,P})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0)\hfill \\ \hfill =_E\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(p^{}TQ,^0,p^{}^{\mu ,Q})\widehat{A}(TP,^{0,P})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0).\end{array}$$

We want to show that for $`\mu =0`$, the expression above vanishes.

Note that the curvature of the reductive connection on an equivariant vector bundle over $`E`$ depends only on the $`(G\times _H𝔰)`$-valued two form $`[,]_𝔰`$ by (1.12). However, this form vanishes on $`𝔤/𝔥𝔥/𝔰`$, so we find that

$$\widehat{A}_X(TP,^{0,P})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0)\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(p^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{even}}T^{}Q\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{even}}T^{}P\right).$$
(2.24)
It remains to analyse the Chern-Simons class $`\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(p^{}TQ,^0,p^{}^{0,Q})`$. Once again, let $`𝔭=𝔰^{}𝔥`$ and $`𝔮=𝔥^{}𝔤`$. Note that a vector field $`V`$ on $`Q`$ is given by an $`H`$-equivariant function $`\widehat{V}:G𝔮`$. This function also describes the horizontal lift of $`V`$ to $`p^{}TQTE`$. Therefore, the pull-back connection $`p^{}^{0,Q}`$ on the horizontal tangent bundle $`p^{}TQTE`$ is given by

$$\widehat{p^{}_V^{\mu ,Q}W}=\widehat{V}\left(\widehat{W}\right)+[\widehat{V}_𝔭,\widehat{W}]$$
(2.25)
for $`S`$-equivariant functions $`V:G𝔢`$ and $`W:G𝔮`$, since then

$$\widehat{p^{}_V^{\mu ,Q}W}=\widehat{V}_𝔮\left(\widehat{W}\right)$$

for an $`H`$-equivariant $`\widehat{W}`$.

We fix a family of connections $`^{0,\lambda }`$ on $`p^{}TQTE`$ by

$$\widehat{_V^{0,\lambda }W}=\widehat{V}(\widehat{W})+\lambda [\widehat{V}_𝔭,\widehat{W}].$$

By (1.11) and (2.25), we have $`^{0,0}=^0`$ and $`^{0,1}=p^{}^{0,Q}`$. A straightforward computation gives the differential and the curvature of this family of connections as

$`{\displaystyle \frac{}{\lambda }}\widehat{_V^{0,\lambda }}`$ $`=[\widehat{V}_𝔭,]`$ $`\mathrm{\Lambda }^1𝔭\mathrm{End}𝔮,`$
$`\text{and}\widehat{F_{V,W}^{0,\lambda }}`$ $`=\psi _{[\widehat{V},\widehat{W}]_𝔰}\lambda [[\widehat{V},\widehat{W}]_𝔭,]`$
$`+\lambda ^2[\widehat{V}_𝔭,[\widehat{W}_𝔭,]]\lambda ^2[\widehat{W}_𝔭,[\widehat{V}_𝔭,]]`$ $`\left(\mathrm{\Lambda }^2𝔭\mathrm{\Lambda }^2𝔮\right)\mathrm{End}𝔮,`$
where we have used that $`[𝔭,𝔮]𝔮`$ and $`𝔮𝔰=0`$. This implies that

$$\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(p^{}TQ,^0,p^{}^{0,Q})\mathrm{\Gamma }(p^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{even}}T^{}Q\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{odd}}T^{}P).$$
(2.26)
Combining (2.24) and (2.26) with the fact that $`dimQ`$ is odd while $`dimP`$ is even, we see that

$$\begin{array}{c}_E\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TE,^0,p^{}^0^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0)\hfill \\ \hfill =_E\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(p^{}TQ,^0,p^{}^0)\widehat{A}_X(TP,^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0)=0.\end{array}$$

Of course, this conclusion would fail for most other possible choices of connections.

The analogue of (2.24) for the left hand side of (2.16) is

$$\widehat{A}_X(TE,^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}E,^0)\mathrm{\Gamma }\left(p^{}\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{even}}T^{}(G/T)\mathrm{\Lambda }^{\mathrm{even}}T^{}(T/S)\right).$$

It implies that the middle term of the right hand side of (2.23) vanishes. Note that this conclusion would also fail for many other possible choices of connections.

Finally, over $`W_G=N_G(T)/TG/T`$, the Killing field $`X_E`$ becomes tangential to the fibres. Let $`w=nTN_G(T)/T=W_G`$, then $`X_E|_{nT}`$ is diffeomorphic to the Killing field $`wX_{T/S}`$ on $`T/S`$. Let us summarise our computations so far.

###### 2.27 Proposition.

Let $`GHS`$ and $`GTS`$ be as above, and assume that $`X𝔱`$ is regular and that the Killing field $`X_{G/H}`$ has no zeros. Then

$$\begin{array}{c}_{G/H}\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\widehat{A}_X(T(G/H),^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa (G/H),^0)\hfill \\ \hfill =\underset{wW_G}{}\frac{1}{e_{wX}\left(T(G/T)\right)}_{T/S}\frac{\vartheta _{wX}}{d_{wX}\vartheta _{wX}}\widehat{A}_{wX}(T(G/S),^0)\mathrm{ch}_{wX}(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}(G/S),^0).\end{array}$$

### 2.3. Evaluation of the Bott localisation defect

In the previous subsection, we have reduced the Bott localisation defect to the quotient of the maximal tori. We will now give two formulas in representation theoretic terms.

We start with a Lemma concerning the Weyl groups of $`G`$ and $`H`$.

###### 2.28 Lemma.

Let $`HG`$ be a pair of compact Lie groups with maximal tori $`ST`$, and let $`W_G`$, $`W_H`$ be the corresponding Weyl groups. Then $`W_H`$ is a subgroup of

$$\left\{w|_𝔰\right|wW_G\text{ and }w(𝔰)=𝔰\}\mathrm{Aut}(S).$$

###### Proof.

Let $`w^{}=n^{}SW_H=N_H(S)/S`$, then $`w^{}`$ acts on $`S`$ by $`sn^{}sn^1`$. Clearly, $`n^{}Tn^1Z_G(S)`$ is a maximal torus in the centraliser of $`S`$ in $`G`$. In particular, we find $`zZ_G(S)`$ such that $`zn^{}T(zn^{})^1=T`$, and $`zn^{}s(zn^{})^1=w^{}(s)`$ for all $`sS`$. Thus, $`w=zn^{}TW_G=N_G(T)/T`$ acts on the subset $`ST`$ as $`w^{}`$. ∎

To state our main result, let $`\delta i𝔱^{}`$ be defined as in (1.17). Let $`_{\beta W_\pi ^+}`$ denote the product over all positive weights of the isotropy representation $`\pi `$, counted with multiplicity by abuse of notation. Let $`\widehat{A}:z\frac{z/2}{\mathrm{sinh}(z/2)}`$ denote the $`\widehat{A}`$-function. We will denote by $`X|_𝔰`$ the orthogonal projection of $`X𝔱`$ onto $`𝔰`$. If $`f:𝔱`$ satisfies $`f(X)=f(wX)`$ for all $`wW_G`$ that map $`𝔰`$ to itself, then we set

$$S_{G/H}(f)(X)=\frac{1}{\mathrm{\#}W_H}\underset{wW_G}{}\mathrm{sign}(w)f(wX).$$
(2.29)
If $`W_H`$ can be identified with a subgroup of $`W_G`$, this amounts to summing over $`W_G/W_H`$.

###### 2.30 Theorem.

Let $`M=G/H`$ be a quotient of compact Lie groups. If $`\mathrm{rk}G=\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, then

$`{\displaystyle _M}{\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}}\widehat{A}_X`$ $`(TM,^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa M,^0)`$
$`=A_G\left({\displaystyle \frac{e^{(\kappa +\rho _H)(|_𝔰)}}{\delta ()}}{\displaystyle \underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}}\widehat{A}\left(\beta (|_𝔰)\right)\right)(X){\displaystyle \underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_𝔤^+}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta (X)}}`$ (1)
$`=S_{G/H}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\chi _H^\kappa \left(e^{|_𝔰}\right)}{\delta ()}}{\displaystyle \underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta (|_𝔰)}{\beta ()}}{\displaystyle \underset{\beta W_\pi ^+}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\beta }{2}(|_𝔰)\right)}}\right)(X).`$ (2)
Otherwise,

$`{\displaystyle _M}{\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}}\widehat{A}_X(TM,^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa M,^0)`$ $`=0.`$ (3)
Formula (2) gives an advantage for explicit computations if the subgroup $`H`$ has a large Weyl group and the character $`\chi _H^\kappa `$ is known, e.g., if $`D^\kappa =D`$ is the untwisted Dirac operator. We have used this formula in Section 1.3 when dealing with spheres and odd Grassmannians. In some cases, one can even improve on (2). Suppose that there exists another subgroup $`KG`$, such that $`HK`$ and $`S`$ is a maximal torus of $`K`$. Then one obtains a similar formula where $`K`$ replaces $`H`$, $`\pi `$ becomes the isotropy representation of $`G/K`$, and $`\kappa `$ gets replaced by $`\kappa +\rho _H\rho _K`$.

###### Proof.

We evaluate the right hand side of Proposition 2.27 term by term. The tangent bundle $`T(G/T)`$ is oriented by the choice of $`\mathrm{\Delta }_G^+`$ as in (1.15), so for $`w=nT`$,

$$\frac{\delta _{nT/T}}{e_X\left(T(G/T)\right)}=\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}\frac{1}{\beta (wX)}=\mathrm{sign}(w)\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}\frac{1}{\beta (X)},$$

independent of any connection on $`T(G/T)`$, since we evaluate at isolated fixpoints.

Because the vertical tangent bundle of $`G/SG/T`$ is trivial, $`G`$-invariant and parallel with respect to $`^0`$, the equivariant $`\widehat{A}`$-form of $`T(G/S)`$ is given as

$$\widehat{A}_{wX}(T(G/S),^0)|_{T/S}=\widehat{A}_{wX}(p^{}T(G/T),^0)|_{T/S}=\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}\widehat{A}\left(\beta (wX|_𝔰)\right)$$

by (2.17); because $`T/S`$ is one-dimensional, only the moment $`\mu ^0`$ of $`^0`$ enters. Similarly, the equivariant Chern character form equals

$$\mathrm{ch}_{wX}(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}(G/S),^0)|_{T/S}=e^{(\kappa +\rho _H)(wX|_𝔰)}.$$

Assume that $`\mathrm{rk}G=\mathrm{rk}H+1`$. The expression $`_{T/S}\frac{\vartheta _{wX}}{d_{wX}\vartheta _{wX}}`$ is clearly independent of the metric chosen, so we may assume that $`\mathrm{vol}(T/S)=2\pi `$. Then for a positively oriented unit vector $`E`$, we have $`\delta (E)=i`$ and $`\delta (X)=iX,E`$. Then

$$_{T/S}\frac{\vartheta _{wX}}{d_{wX}\vartheta _{wX}}=_{T/S}\frac{wX_{T/S}^{}}{2\pi iwX_{T/S}^2}=\frac{\mathrm{vol}(T/S)}{2\pi iwX,E}=\frac{1}{\delta (wX)}.$$

This proves (1).

To prove (2), we use Lemma 2.28 to simplify (1). If we assume that $`\mathrm{rk}G=\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, there are two possibilities. Either, each element of $`W_H`$ corresponds to precisely one element of $`W_G`$; then these elements form a subgroup of $`W_G`$ that we identify with $`W_H`$. Or each element of $`W_H`$ corresponds to precisely two elements of $`W_G`$ which differ by the reflexion on $`S`$; then we can identify $`W_H`$ with a subgroup of $`W_G^{\mathrm{even}}`$, or with those elements that preserve the normal orientation of $`S`$ in $`T`$. We fix one of these identifications. Let $`\mathrm{sign}_G(w)=\mathrm{det}(w|_𝔱)`$ and $`\mathrm{sign}_H(w)=\mathrm{det}(w|_𝔰)`$ denote the sign of an element $`wW_HW_G`$ as an element of the Weyl groups $`W_G`$ and $`W_H`$, respectively. These signs are related by

$$\mathrm{sign}_G(w)\delta (wX)=\mathrm{sign}_H(w)\delta (X).$$
(2.31)
As representations of $`𝔰`$, $`𝔤/𝔱E`$ is isomorphic to $`𝔥/𝔰\pi `$. If we have chosen $`\mathrm{\Delta }_G^+`$ and $`\mathrm{\Delta }_H^+`$ carefully, the restriction to $`𝔰𝔱`$ maps the positive roots $`\mathrm{\Delta }_G^+`$ bijectively onto $`\mathrm{\Delta }_H^+\dot{}W_\pi ^+`$, where the positive weights of $`\pi `$ are counted with multiplicity. We assume that this is the case, even though our final formula does not depend on this choice, only on the compatibility of orientations in (1.16). Recall the Weyl formulas,

$$\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_H^+}{}2\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\beta }{2}(X)\right)=A_H\left(e^{\rho _H}\right)(X)\text{and}\frac{A_H\left(e^{\kappa +\rho _H}\right)}{A_H\left(e^{\rho _H}\right)}(X)=\chi _H^\kappa \left(e^X\right),$$
(2.32)
where $`A_H`$ denotes the alternating sum over the Weyl group of $`H`$. Regarding $`W_H`$ as a subgroup of $`W_G`$ and using (2.31) and (2.32), we find that

$$\begin{array}{c}A_H\left(\frac{e^{(\kappa +\rho _H)(|_𝔰)}}{\delta ()}\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}\widehat{A}\left(\beta (|_𝔰)\right)\right)(X)\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}\frac{1}{\beta (X)}\hfill \\ \hfill \begin{array}{cc}& =\frac{1}{\delta (X)}\frac{A_H(e^{\kappa +\rho _H})}{A_H(e^{\rho _H})}\left(X|_𝔰\right)\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}\frac{\widehat{A}\left(\beta (X|_𝔰)\right)}{\beta (X)}\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_H^+}{}2\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\beta }{2}(X|_𝔰)\right)\hfill \\ & =\frac{\chi _H^\kappa \left(e^{X|_𝔰}\right)}{\delta (X)}\underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}\frac{\beta (X|_𝔰)}{\beta (X)}\underset{\beta W_\pi ^+}{}\frac{1}{2\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\beta }{2}(X|_𝔰)\right)}.\hfill \end{array}\end{array}$$

Replacing $`X`$ by $`wX`$ and summing over $`wX`$ for $`wW_G/W_H`$, we obtain (2).

Finally, assume that $`\mathrm{rk}G\mathrm{rk}H+1`$. First of all, if $`\mathrm{rk}G\mathrm{rk}H`$ is even, then so is $`dimM`$, and the integral in Theorem 2.30 vanishes for parity reasons. Otherwise, $`\mathrm{rk}G\mathrm{rk}H=dimT/S3`$. Because $`T`$ is abelian, the two-form part of the equivariant curvature $`F_{wX}^{0,\kappa }`$ vanishes on $`T/S`$ by (2.18). This implies that $`\widehat{A}_{wX}(T(G/S),^0)`$ and $`\mathrm{ch}_{wX}(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}(G/S),^0)`$ have no components of non-zero exterior degree. Also, the Killing vector field on $`T/S`$ generated by $`wX𝔱`$ is parallel, so $`\frac{\vartheta _{wX}}{d_{wX}\vartheta _{wX}}\mathrm{\Omega }^1(T/S)`$. Then

$$\frac{\vartheta _{wX}}{d_{wX}\vartheta _{wX}}\widehat{A}_{wX}(T(G/S),^0)\mathrm{ch}_{wX}(V^{\kappa +\rho _H}(G/S),^0)\mathrm{\Omega }^1(T/S),$$

and the integral over $`T/S`$ vanishes, which proves (3). ∎

### 2.4. Evaluation of $`\eta `$-invariants

We combine Theorem 2.30 with Theorem 1.9 and Theorem 1.19 to establish our final formula for the infinitesimally equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant of the Dirac operator $`D^\kappa `$ on $`M=G/H`$.

Let $`\widehat{G}`$ denote the set of equivalence classes of irreducible unitary representations of $`G`$. Because $`G`$ is compact, all these representations are finite dimensional. Recall that by Frobenius reciprocity and the Peter-Weyl theorem,

$$\mathrm{\Gamma }(S^\kappa M)=\overline{\underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}V^\gamma \mathrm{Hom}_H(V^\gamma ,SV^\kappa )}.$$

Because $`D^\kappa `$ and $`\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa `$ are $`G`$-equivariant, they respect this decomposition, and we have

$$D^\kappa =\overline{\underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}\mathrm{id}_{V^\gamma }{}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa }},$$

and similarly for $`\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa `$. Let $`\eta ({}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa })`$ and $`h({}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa })`$ denote the $`\eta `$-invariant and the dimension of the kernel of $`{}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa }`$ acting on $`\mathrm{Hom}_H(V^\gamma ,SV^\kappa )`$. We also recall the definitions of $`\delta `$ and $`\alpha 𝔱^{}`$ in (1.17), (1.18), and the definition of $`W_\pi ^+`$ and $`S_{G/H}`$ in section 2.3.

###### 2.33 Theorem.

Assume that $`\mathrm{rk}G=\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, then

$`\eta _X\left(D^\kappa \right)`$ $`=2{\displaystyle \underset{wW_G}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{sign}(w)}{\delta (wX)}}({\displaystyle \underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}}\widehat{A}\left(\beta (wX)\right)\widehat{A}\left(\delta (wX)\right)e^{\left(\alpha \frac{\delta }{2}\right)(wX)}`$
$`{\displaystyle \underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}}\widehat{A}\left(\beta (wX|_𝔰)\right)e^{(\kappa +\rho _H)(wX|_𝔰)}){\displaystyle }_{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{\beta (X)}}`$ (1)
$`+2{\displaystyle _M}\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa M,^\kappa )`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}}\chi _G^\gamma \left(e^X\right)\left(\eta \left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa }\right)(\eta +h)\left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }\stackrel{~}{D}_{}^{\kappa }\right)\right).`$
Equivalently,

$`\eta _X\left(D^\kappa \right)`$ $`={\displaystyle \frac{A_G\left(\frac{1}{\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\delta }{2}()\right)}e^{(\alpha \frac{\delta }{2})()}\right)}{A_G(\rho _G)}}(X)`$
$`+2S_{G/H}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\chi _H^\kappa \left(e^{|_𝔰}\right)}{\delta ()}}{\displaystyle \underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta (|_𝔰)}{\beta ()}}{\displaystyle \underset{\beta W_\pi ^+}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\beta }{2}(|_𝔰)\right)}}\right)(X)`$ (2)
$`+2{\displaystyle _M}\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa M,^\kappa )`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}}\chi _G^\gamma \left(e^X\right)\left(\eta \left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa }\right)(\eta +h)\left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }\stackrel{~}{D}_{}^{\kappa }\right)\right).`$
If $`\mathrm{rk}G\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, then

$`\eta _X\left(D^\kappa \right)`$ $`=2{\displaystyle _M}\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa M,^\kappa )`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}}\chi _G^\gamma \left(e^X\right)\left(\eta \left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa }\right)(\eta +h)\left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }\stackrel{~}{D}_{}^{\kappa }\right)\right).`$ (3)
The classical $`\eta `$-invariant $`\eta (D^\kappa )`$ is attained at $`X=0`$ in (1)–(3).

It is easy to see that the singularities within the parentheses of the first term on the right hand side of (1) cancel, so that we are left with the alternating Weyl sum of a power series in $`X`$ divided by the linearised Weyl denominator $`_{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}(i\beta )(X)`$. The result will then be a $`W_G`$-invariant power series representing a modified infinitesimal equivariant $`\xi `$-invariant of $`G/H`$. Note also that the last sum in (1)–(3) is finite because only finitely many eigenvalues change sign when one passes from $`D^\kappa `$ to $`\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa `$.

###### Proof.

Assume that $`e^X`$ acts freely on $`M`$. Then by , ,

$$(\eta +h)_{e^X}\left(D^\kappa \right)(\eta +h)_{e^X}\left(\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa \right)=\underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}\chi _G^\gamma \left(e^X\right)\left((\eta +h)\left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa }\right)(\eta +h)\left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }\stackrel{~}{D}_{}^{\kappa }\right)\right)$$

is the equivariant spectral flow from $`\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa `$ to $`D^\kappa `$. This fits with Theorem 1.6, applied to the cylinder $`M\times [0,1]`$, such that the induced operators on the ends $`M\times \{0\}`$ and $`M\times \{1\}`$ are precisely $`\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa `$ to $`D^\kappa `$. Thus by Theorem 1.9, we have

$`\eta _X\left(D^\kappa \right)`$ $`=\eta _{e^X}\left(D^\kappa \right)+2{\displaystyle _M}{\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}}\widehat{A}_X(TM,^{\mathrm{LC}})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa M,^0)`$
$`=(\eta +h)_{e^X}\left(\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa \right)+2{\displaystyle _M}{\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}}\widehat{A}_X(TM,^{\mathrm{LC}})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa M,^0)`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}}\chi _G^\gamma \left(e^X\right)\left(\eta \left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa }\right)(\eta +h)\left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }\stackrel{~}{D}_{}^{\kappa }\right)\right).`$
We still assume that $`X`$ acts freely on $`M`$. Then clearly

$$\begin{array}{c}\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}(\widehat{A}_X(TM,^{\mathrm{LC}})\widehat{A}_X(TM,^0))=\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}d_X\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})\hfill \\ \hfill =\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})d_X\left(\frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})\right),\end{array}$$

so we get

$`\eta _X\left(D^\kappa \right)`$ $`=(\eta +h)_{e^X}\left(\stackrel{~}{D}^\kappa \right)+2{\displaystyle _M}{\displaystyle \frac{\vartheta _X}{d_X\vartheta _X}}\widehat{A}_X(TM,^0)\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa M,^0)`$
$`+2{\displaystyle _M}\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})\mathrm{ch}_X(V^\kappa M,^\kappa )`$
$`+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}}\chi _G^\gamma \left(e^X\right)\left(\eta \left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }D_{}^{\kappa }\right)(\eta +h)\left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }\stackrel{~}{D}_{}^{\kappa }\right)\right).`$
Theorem 1.19 and Theorem 2.30 (2) give (2) if $`\mathrm{rk}G=\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, and (3) otherwise.

To obtain (1), we use Theorem 2.30 (1), and we rewrite the result of Theorem 1.19 using the Weyl denominator formula (2.32). ∎

Because the odd signature operator $`B=D`$ often comes up in topological applications, we want to state formula (2) for this special case. Therefore, let $`\stackrel{~}{\pi }=\kappa _1\mathrm{}\kappa _l`$ be the decomposition of $`\stackrel{~}{\pi }`$ into $`𝔥`$-irreducible components, and let $`\alpha _1`$, …, $`\alpha _l`$ be the corresponding weights of $`𝔤`$ as in (1.18). Let

$`\widehat{L}_X(TM,)`$ $`=\widehat{A}_X(TM,)\mathrm{ch}_X(𝒮,)`$
$`=\mathrm{det}^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}}\left(R_X^{TM}\mathrm{coth}{\displaystyle \frac{R_X^{TM}}{2}}\right)`$
denote a rescaled version of Hirzebruch’s $`L`$-genus, and let $`\stackrel{~}{\widehat{L}}_X`$ denote the corresponding equivariant Chern-Simons class.

###### 2.34 Corollary.

Assume that $`\mathrm{rk}G=\mathrm{rk}H+1`$. Then the infinitesimally equivariant $`\eta `$-invariant of the odd signature operator $`B`$ on $`M`$ is given by

$`\eta _X(B)`$ $`={\displaystyle \underset{l}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{A_G\left(\frac{1}{\mathrm{sinh}\left(\frac{\delta }{2}()\right)}e^{(\alpha _l\frac{\delta }{2})()}\right)}{A_G(\rho _G)}}(X)`$
$`+2S_{G/H}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1}{\delta ()}}{\displaystyle \underset{\beta \mathrm{\Delta }_G^+}{}}{\displaystyle \frac{\beta (|_𝔰)}{\beta ()}}{\displaystyle \underset{\beta W_\pi ^+}{}}\mathrm{coth}\left({\displaystyle \frac{\beta (|_𝔰)}{2}}\right)\right)(X)`$ (1)
$`+2{\displaystyle _M}\stackrel{~}{\widehat{L}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}}\chi _G^\gamma \left(e^X\right)(\eta \left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }B\right)(\eta +h)\left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }\stackrel{~}{B}\right)).`$
If $`\mathrm{rk}G\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, then

$`\eta _X(B)`$ $`=2{\displaystyle _M}\stackrel{~}{\widehat{L}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})+{\displaystyle \underset{\gamma \widehat{G}}{}}\chi _G^\gamma \left(e^X\right)(\eta \left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }B\right)(\eta +h)\left({}_{}{}^{\gamma }\stackrel{~}{B}\right)).`$ (2)
The classical $`\eta `$-invariant $`\eta (B)`$ is attained at $`X=0`$ in both cases.

###### Proof.

Let $`\beta _1`$, …, $`\beta _r`$ denote the positive weights of $`\pi `$, counted with the right multiplicity. If $`\mathrm{rk}G=\mathrm{rk}H+1`$, then the weights of $`\stackrel{~}{\pi }`$ take the form $`\left(\pm \frac{\beta _1}{2}\pm \mathrm{}\pm \frac{\beta _r}{2}\right)|_𝔰`$, each with multiplicity one , . Therefore,

$$\chi _H^{\stackrel{~}{\pi }}\left(e^{X|_𝔰}\right)=\underset{\beta W_\beta ^+}{}2\mathrm{cosh}\left(\frac{\beta }{2}(X|_𝔰)\right).$$

Note also that for the odd signature operator $`B`$, we need the Levi-Civita connection on the twist bundle instead of the reductive connection. This is why the correct Chern-Simons contribution is given by $`\stackrel{~}{\widehat{L}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})`$, not by $`\stackrel{~}{\widehat{A}}{}_{X}{}^{}(TM,^0,^{\mathrm{LC}})\mathrm{ch}_X(𝒮,^0)`$. The Corollary now follows easily from Theorem 2.33 (2) and (3). ∎