Higher analytic torsion of sphere bundles and continuous cohomology of $Diff(S^{2n-1})$

Abstract

Using the higher analytic torsion form of Bismut and Lott we construct a characteristic class for smooth sphere bundles. We calculate this class in the case where the sphere bundle comes from a complex vector bundle. Related to these characteristic classes we define nontrivial continuous group cohomology classes of the diffeomorphism group of odd dimensional spheres.