Comments on the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index theorem, domain wall, and Berry phase

Abstract

It is known that the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index can be reformulated as the eta invariant of the Dirac operators with a domain wall mass which plays a key role in the anomaly inflow of the topological insulator with boundary. In this paper, we give a conjecture that the reformulated version of the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer index can be given simply from the Berry phase associated with domain wall Dirac operators when adiabatic approximation is valid. We explicitly confirm this conjecture for a special case in two dimensions where analytic calculation is possible. The Berry phase is divided into the bulk and the boundary contributions, each of which gives the bulk integration of the Chern character and the eta-invariant.