Asymptotic Spectral Flow

Abstract

In this paper we study the asymptotic behavior of the spectral flow of a one-parameter family $\{D_s\}$ of Dirac operators acting on the spinor bunldle $S$ twisted by a vector bundle $E$ of rank $k$, with the parameter $s\in [0,r]$ when $r$ gets sufficiently large. Our method uses the variation of eta invariant and local index theory technique. The key is a uniform estimate of the eta invariant $\bar{\eta}(D_r)$ which is established via local index theory technique and heat kernel estimate.