Spectral sections, twisted rho invariants and positive scalar curvature

Abstract

We had previously defined the rho invariant $ρ_{spin}(Y,E,H, g)$ for the twisted Dirac operator $\not\partial^E_H$ on a closed odd dimensional Riemannian spin manifold $(Y, g)$, acting on sections of a flat hermitian vector bundle $E$ over $Y$, where $H = \sum i^{j+1} H_{2j+1} $ is an odd-degree differential form on $Y$ and $H_{2j+1}$ is a real-valued differential form of degree ${2j+1}$. Here we show that it is a conformal invariant of the pair $(H, g)$. In this paper we express the defect integer $ρ_{spin}(Y,E,H, g) - ρ_{spin}(Y,E, g)$ in terms of spectral flows and prove that $ρ_{spin}(Y,E,H, g)\in \mathbb Q$, whenever $g$ is a Riemannian metric of positive scalar curvature. In addition, if the maximal Baum-Connes conjecture holds for $π_1(Y)$ (which is assumed to be torsion-free), then we show that $ρ_{spin}(Y,E,H, rg) =0$ for all $r\gg 0$, significantly generalizing our earlier results. These results are proved using the Bismut-Weitzenböck formula, a scaling trick, the technique of noncommutative spectral sections, and the Higson-Roe approach.