Spectral Geometry Of The Laplacian Spectral Analysis And Differential Geometry Of The Laplacian

The totality of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian of a compact Riemannian manifold is called the spectrum. We describe how the spectrum determines a Riemannian manifold. The continuity of the eigenvalue of the Laplacian, Cheeger and Yau's estimate of the first eigenvalue, the Lichnerowicz–Obata's theorem on the first eigenvalue, the Cheng's estimates of the kth eigenvalues, and Payne–Pólya–Weinberger's inequality of the Dirichlet eigenvalue of the Laplacian are also described. Then, the theorem of Colin de Verdière, that is, the spectrum determines the totality of all the lengths of closed geodesics is described. We give the V Guillemin and D Kazhdan's theorem which determines the Riemannian manifold of negative curvature.

It is remarkable that various distinct physical phenomena, such as wave propagation, heat diffusion, electron movement in quantum mechanics, oscillations of fluid in a container, can be described using the same differential operator, the Laplacian. Spectral data (i.e., eigenvalues and eigenfunctions) of the Laplacian depend in a subtle way on the geometry of the underlying object, e.g., a Euclidean domain or a Riemannian manifold, on which the operator is defined. This dependence, or, rather, the interplay between the geometry and the spectrum, is the main subject of spectral geometry. Its roots can be traced to Ernst Chladni's experiments with vibrating plates, Lord Rayleigh's theory of sound, and Mark Kac's celebrated question “Can one hear the shape of a drum?” In the second half of the twentieth century spectral geometry emerged as a separate branch of geometric analysis. Nowadays it is a rapidly developing area of mathematics, with close connections to other fields, such as differential geometry, mathematical physics, partial differential equations, number theory, dynamical systems, and numerical analysis. This book can be used for a graduate or an advanced undergraduate course on spectral geometry, starting from the basics but at the same time covering some of the exciting recent developments which can be explained without too many prerequisites.

This volume contains the proceedings of the International Conference on Spectral Geometry, held July 19-23, 2010, at Dartmouth College, Dartmouth, New Hampshire. Eigenvalue problems involving the Laplace operator on manifolds have proven to be a consistently fertile area of geometric analysis with deep connections to number theory, physics, and applied mathematics. Key questions include the measures to which eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on a Riemannian manifold condense in the limit of large eigenvalue, and the extent to which the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of a manifold encode its geometry. In this volume, research and expository articles, including those of the plenary speakers Peter Sarnak and Victor Guillemin, address the flurry of recent progress in such areas as quantum unique ergodicity, isospectrality, semiclassical measures, the geometry of nodal lines of eigenfunctions, methods of numerical computation, and spectra of quantum graphs. This volume also contains mini-courses on spectral theory for hyperbolic surfaces, semiclassical analysis, and orbifold spectral geometry that prepared the participants, especially graduate students and young researchers, for conference lectures.

This text on analysis of Riemannian manifolds is aimed at students who have had a first course in differentiable manifolds.

A co-publication of the AMS and Centre de Recherches Mathématiques The book is a collection of lecture notes and survey papers based on the mini-courses given by leading experts at the 2015 Séminaire de Mathématiques Supérieures on Geometric and Computational Spectral Theory, held from June 15–26, 2015, at the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada. The volume covers a broad variety of topics in spectral theory, highlighting its connections to differential geometry, mathematical physics and numerical analysis, bringing together the theoretical and computational approaches to spectral theory, and emphasizing the interplay between the two.

Authoritative lectures from world experts on spectral theory and geometry.