Let $(M,g)$ be a compact connected orientable Riemannian manifold of dimension $n\ge4$ and let $λ_{k,p} (g)$ be the $k$-th positive eigenvalue of the Laplacian $Δ_{g,p}=dd^*+d^*d$ acting on differential forms of degree $p$ on $M$. We prove that the metric $g$ can be conformally deformed to a metric $g'$, having the same volume as $g$, with arbitrarily large $λ_{1,p} (g')$ for all $p\in[2,n-2]$. Note that for the other values of $p$, that is $p=0, 1, n-1$ and $n$, one can deduce from the literature that, $\forall k >0$, the $k$-th eigenvalue $λ_{k,p}$ is uniformly bounded on any conformal class of metrics of fixed volume on $M$. For $p=1$, we show that, for any positive integer $N$, there exists a metric $g_N$ conformal to $g$ such that, $\forall k\le N$, $λ_{k,1} (g_N) =λ_{k,0} (g_N) $, that is, the first $N$ eigenforms of $Δ_{g_N,1}$ are all exact forms.
We show that zero is not an eigenvalue of the conformal Laplacian for generic Riemannian metrics. We also discuss non-compactness for sequences of metrics with growing number of negative eigenvalues of the conformal Laplacian.
We establish a uniform comparison between the spectrum of the rough Laplacian (acting on sections of a vector bundle of complex rank one or of harmonic curvature) with the spectrum of a discrete operator (a generalization of a discrete magnetic Laplacian added with a potential) acting on a finite dimensional space coming from a discretization process. As an application, we obtain a comparison of the first positive eigenvalue of the rough Laplacian with the holonomy.
An adapted version of the proof (due to A. Weil) of the well-known de Rham Theorem allows us to compare uniformly the spectrum of the Hodge Laplacian acting on differential forms (on a compact Riemannian manifold) to the spectrum of the combinatorial Laplacian acting on cochains associated to an open cover (made of balls of sufficiently small radius). We exhibit then a lower bound for the first positive eigenvalue of the combinatorial Laplacian and deduce a lower bound for the first positive eigenvalue of the Hodge Laplacian.
On locally conformally flat manifolds we describe a construction which maps generalised conformal Killing tensors to differential operators which may act on any conformally weighted tensor bundle; the operators in the range have the property that they are symmetries of any natural conformally invariant differential operator between such bundles. These are used to construct all symmetries of the conformally invariant powers of the Laplacian (often called the GJMS operators) on manifolds of dimension at least 3. In particular this yields all symmetries of the powers of the Laplacian $Δ^k$, $k\in…
In this note, we study the connection between the fractional Laplacian operator that appeared in the recent work of Caffarelli-Silvestre and a class of conformally covariant operators in conformal geometry.
In this paper, we introduce a new functional for the conformal spectrum of the conformal laplacian on a closed manifold M of dimension at least 3. For this new functional we provide a Korevaar type result. The main body of the paper deals with the case of the sphere but a section is devoted to more general closed manifolds.
The aim of this paper is to report on recent development on the conformal fractional Laplacian, both from the analytic and geometric points of view, but especially towards the PDE community.
We study the Laplacian flow of a $\mathrm{G}_2$-structure where this latter structure is claimed to be Locally Conformal Parallel. The first examples of long time solutions of this flow with the Locally Conformal Parallel condition are given. All of the solutions are ancient and Laplacian soliton of shrinking type. These examples are one-parameter families of Locally Conformal Parallel $\mathrm{G}_2$-structures on rank-one solvable extensions of six-dimensional nilpotent Lie groups. The found solutions are used to construct long time solutions to the Laplacian coflow starting from a Locally Co…
A new derivation is given of Branson's factorization formula for the conformally invariant operator on the sphere whose principal part is the k-th power of the scalar Laplacian. The derivation deduces Branson's formula from knowledge of the corresponding conformally invariant operator on Euclidean space (the k-th power of the Euclidean Laplacian) via conjugation by the stereographic projection mapping.
We study eigenvalue problems for intrinsic sub-Laplacians on regular sub-Riemannian manifolds. We prove upper bounds for sub-Laplacian eigenvalues $λ_k$ of conformal sub-Riemannian metrics that are asymptotically sharp as $k\to +\infty$. For Sasakian manifolds with a lower Ricci curvature bound, and more generally, for contact metric manifolds conformal to such Sasakian manifolds, we obtain eigenvalue inequalities that can be viewed as versions of the classical results by Korevaar and Buser in Riemannian geometry.
We investigate the singular sets of solutions of conformally covariant elliptic operators of fractional order with the goal of developing generalizations of some well-known properties of solutions of the singular Yamabe problem.
We show that on conformal manifolds of even dimension $n\geq 4$ there is no conformally invariant natural differential operator between density bundles with leading part a power of the Laplacian $Δ^{k}$ for $k>n/2$. This shows that a large class of invariant operators on conformally flat manifolds do not generalise to arbitrarily curved manifolds and that the theorem of Graham, Jenne, Mason and Sparling, asserting the existence of curved version of $Δ^k$ for $1\le k\le n/2$, is sharp.
Green functions play an important role in conformal geometry. In this paper, we explain how to compute explicitly the logarithmic singularities of the Green functions of the conformal powers of the Laplacian. These operators include the Yamabe and Paneitz operators, as well as the conformal fractional powers of the Laplacian arising from scattering theory for Poincaré-Einstein metrics. The results are formulated in terms of Weyl conformal invariants arising from the ambient metric of Fefferman-Graham. As applications we obtain "Green function" characterizations of locally conformally flat mani…
Let M be a compact, connected, m-dimensional manifold without boundary and p>1. For 1<p\leq m, we prove that the first eigenvalue λ_{1,p} of the p-Laplacian is bounded on each conformal class of Riemannian metrics of volume one on M. For p>m, we show that any conformal class of Riemannian metrics on M contains metrics of volume one with λ_{1,p} arbitrarily large. As a consequence, we obtain that in two dimensions λ_{1,p} is uniformly bounded on the space of Riemannian metrics of volume one if 1<p\leq 2, respectively unbounded if p>2.
We consider the renormalized Bochner Laplacian acting on tensor powers of a positive line bundle on a compact symplectic manifold. We derive an explicit local formula for the spectral density function in terms of coefficients of the Riemannian metric and symplectic form.
We introduce a differential topological invariant for compact differentiable manifolds by counting the small eigenvalues of the Conformal Laplace operator. This invariant vanishes if and only if the manifold has a metric of positive scalar curvature. We show that the invariant does not increase under surgery of codimension at least three and we give lower and upper bounds in terms of the $α$-genus.
Let $X$ be a compact Riemann surface of genus $g\geq 2$ equipped with flat conical metric $|Ω|$, where $Ω$ be a holomorphic quadratic differential on $X$ with $4g-4$ simple zeroes. Let $K$ be the canonical line bundle on $X$. Introduce the Cauchy-Riemann operators $\bar \partial$ and $\partial$ acting on sections of holomorphic line bundles over $X$ ($K^2$ in the definition of $Δ^{(2)}_{|Ω|}$ below) and, respectively, anti-holomorphic line bundles ($\bar { K}^{-1}$ below). Consider the Laplace operator $Δ^{(2)}_{|Ω|}:=|Ω| \partial |Ω|^{-2}\bar\partial$ acting in the Hilbert space of square int…
Let (M,g) be an arbitrary pseudo-Riemannian manifold of dimension at least 3. We determine the form of all the conformal symmetries of the conformal (or Yamabe) Laplacian on (M,g), which are given by differential operators of second order. They are constructed from conformal Killing 2-tensors satisfying a natural and conformally invariant condition. As a consequence, we get also the classification of the second order symmetries of the conformal Laplacian. Our results generalize the ones of Eastwood and Carter, which hold on conformally flat and Einstein manifolds respectively. We illustrate ou…
Let $(M^n,g)$ be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension $n\ge 3$. We study the variational properties of the $k$-th eigenvalue functional $\tilde g\in[g] \mapsto λ_k(L_{\tilde g})$ under a non-volume normalization proposed by Sire-Xu. We discuss necessary conditions for the existence of extremal eigenvalues under such normalization. Also, we discuss the general existence problem when $k=1$.
Let $(M^n,g)$ be a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension $n\ge 3$. Assume $[g]$ is a conformal class for which the Conformal Laplacian $L_g$ has at least two negative eigenvalues. We show the existence of a (generalized) metric that maximizes the second eigenvalue of $L_g$ over all conformal metrics (the first eigenvalue is maximized by the Yamabe metric). We also show that a maximal metric defines either a nodal solution of the Yamabe equation, or a harmonic map to a sphere. Moreover, we construct examples of each possibility.
We study an optimal control problem associated to the conformal Laplacian obstacle problem on closed n-dimensional Riemannian manifolds with n >2. When the Yamabe invariant of the Riemannian manifold is positive, we show that the optimal controls are equal to their associated optimal states and show the existence of a smooth optimal control which induces a conformal metric with constant scalar curvature. For the standard sphere, we prove that the standard bubbles -- namely conformal factor of metrics conformal to the standard one with constant positive scalar curvature -- are the only optimal …
We consider a conformally invariant version of the Calderón problem, where the objective is to determine the conformal class of a Riemannian manifold with boundary from the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map for the conformal Laplacian. The main result states that a locally conformally real-analytic manifold in dimensions $\geq 3$ can be determined in this way, giving a positive answer to an earlier conjecture by Lassas and Uhlmann (2001). The proof proceeds as in the standard Calderón problem on a real-analytic Riemannian manifold, but new features appear due to the conformal structure. In particular, …
We find an explicit expression for the zeta-regularized determinant of (the Friedrichs extension) of the Laplacian on a compact Riemann surface of genus one with conformal metric of curvature $1$ having a single conical singularity of angle $4π$.
Let $(M^n,g)$ be an $n$-dimensional compact connected Riemannian manifold with boundary. In this article, we study the effects of the presence of a nontrivial conformal vector field on $(M^n,g)$. We used the wekk-known de-Rham Laplace operator and a nontrivial solution of the famous Fischer-Marsden differential equation to provide two characterizations of the hemisphere $\mathbb{S}^{n}_{+}(c)$ of constant curvature $c>0.$ As a consequence of the characterization using the Fischer-Marsden equation, we prove the cosmic no-hair conjecture under a given integral condition.
For each degree p, we construct on any closed manifold a family of Riemannian metrics, with fixed volume such that any positive eigenvalues of the rough and Hodge Laplacians acting on differential p-forms converge to zero. In particular, on the sphere, we can choose these Riemannian metrics as those of non-negative sectional curvature. This is a generalization of the results by Colbois and Maerten in 2010 to the case of higher degree forms.
Based on the relations between scattering operators of asymptotically hyperbolic metrics and Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators of uniformly degenerate elliptic boundary value problems, we formulate fractional Yamabe problems that include the boundary Yamabe problem studied by Escobar. We observe an interesting Hopf type maximum principle together with interplays between analysis of weighted trace Sobolev inequalities and conformal structure of the underlying manifolds, which extend the phenomena displayed in the classic Yamabe problem and boundary Yamabe problem.
We consider a notion of conservation for the heat semigroup associated to a generalized Dirac Laplacian acting on sections of a vector bundle over a noncompact manifold with a (possibly noncompact) boundary under mixed boundary conditions. Assuming that the geometry of the underlying manifold is controlled in a suitable way and imposing uniform lower bounds on the zero order (Weitzenböck) piece of the Dirac Laplacian and on the endomorphism defining the mixed boundary condition we show that the corresponding conservation principle holds. A key ingredient in the proof is a domination property f…
We prove upper bounds for sub-Laplacian eigenvalues independent of a pseudo-Hermitian structure on a CR manifold. These bounds are compatible with the Menikoff-Sjoestrand asymptotic law, and can be viewed as a CR version of Korevaar's bounds for Laplace eigenvalues of conformal metrics.
The odd signature operator is a Dirac operator which acts on the space of differential forms of all degrees and whose square is the usual Laplacian. We extend the result of [15] to prove the gluing formula of the zeta-determinants of Laplacians acting on differential forms of all degrees with respect to the boundary conditions ${\mathcal P}_{-, {\mathcal L}_{0}}$, ${\mathcal P}_{+, {\mathcal L}_{1}}$. We next consider a double of de Rham complexes consisting of differential forms of all degrees with the absolute and relative boundary conditions. Using a similar method, we prove the gluing form…
We develop a new approach, based on quantization methods, to study higher symmetries of invariant differential operators. We focus here on conformally invariant powers of the Laplacian over a conformally flat manifold and recover results of Eastwood, Leistner, Gover and Šilhan. In particular, conformally equivariant quantization establishes a correspondence between the algebra of Hamiltonian symmetries of the null geodesic flow and the algebra of higher symmetries of the conformal Laplacian. Combined with a symplectic reduction, this leads to a quantization of the minimal nilpotent coadjoint o…
We construct continuously parametrised families of conformally invariant boundary operators on densities. These may also be viewed as conformally covariant boundary operators on functions and generalise to higher orders the first-order conformal Robin operator and an analogous third-order operator of Chang-Qing. Our families include operators of critical order on odd-dimensional boundaries. Combined with the (conformal Laplacian power) GJMS operators, a suitable selection of the boundary operators yields formally self-adjoint elliptic conformal boundary problems. Working on a conformal manifol…
We completely resolve the boundary value problem for differential forms and conformally Einstein infinity in terms of the dual Hahn polynomials. Consequently, we produce explicit formulas for the Branson-Gover operators on Einstein manifolds and prove their representation as a product of second order operators. This leads to an explicit description of $Q$-curvature and gauge companion operators on differential forms.
We consider open manifolds which are interiors of a compact manifold with boundary, and Riemannian metrics asymptotic to a conformally cylindrical metric near the boundary. We show that the essential spectrum of the Laplace operator on functions vanishes under the presence of a magnetic field which does not define an integral relative cohomology class. It follows that the essential spectrum is not stable by perturbation even by a compactly supported magnetic field. We also treat magnetic operators perturbed with electric fields. In the same context we describe the essential spectrum of the $k$…
A new definition of canonical conformal differential operators $P_k$ ($k=1,2,...)$, with leading term a $k^{\rm th}$ power of the Laplacian, is given for conformally Einstein manifolds of any signature. These act between density bundles and, more generally, between weighted tractor bundles of any rank. By construction these factor into a power of a fundamental Laplacian associated to Einstein metrics. There are natural conformal Laplacian operators on density bundles due to Graham-Jenne-Mason-Sparling (GJMS). It is shown that on conformally Einstein manifolds these agree with the $P_k$ operato…
Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we identify the symmetry algebra of the Laplacian on Euclidean space as an explicit quotient of the universal enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra of conformal motions. We construct analogues of these symmetries on a general conformal manifold.
We study a behavior of the conformal Laplacian operator $Ł_g$ on a manifold with \emph{tame conical singularities}: when each singularity is given as a cone over a product of the standard spheres. We study the spectral properties of the operator $Ł_g$ on such manifolds. We describe the asymptotic of a general solution of the equation $Ł_g u = Q u^α$ with $1\leq α\leq \frac{n+2}{n-2}$ near each singular point. In particular, we derive the asymptotic of the Yamabe metric near such singularity.
The aim of this paper is two-fold: first, we look at the fractional Laplacian and the conformal fractional Laplacian from the general framework of representation theory on symmetric spaces and, second, we construct new boundary operators with good conformal properties that generalize the fractional Laplacian using an extension problem in which the boundary is of codimension two.
Let $M$ be a compact connected manifold of dimension $n$ endowed with a conformal class $C$ of Riemannian metrics of volume one. For any integer $k\geq0$, we consider the conformal invariant $λ_k ^c (C)$ defined as the supremum of the $k$-th eigenvalue $λ_k (g)$ of the Laplace-Beltrami operator $Δ_g$, where $g$ runs over $C$. First, we give a sharp universal lower bound for $λ_k ^c (C)$ extending to all $k$ a result obtained by Friedlander and Nadirashvili for $k=1$. Then, we show that the sequence $ \{λ_k ^c (C) \}$, that we call "conformal spectrum", is strictly increasing and satisfies, $\f…
Let $g$ and $\tilde{g}$ be Riemannian metrics on a noncompact manifold $M$, which are conformally equivalent. We show that under a very mild \emph{first order} control on the conformal factor, the wave operators corresponding to the Hodge-Laplacians $Δ_g$ and $Δ_{\tilde{g}}$ acting on differential forms exist and are complete. We apply this result to Riemannian manifolds with a bounded geometry and more specifically, to warped product Riemannian manifolds with a bounded geometry. Finally, we combine our results with some explicit calculations by Antoci to determine the absolutely continuous sp…
The well known conformal covariance of the Dirac operator acting on spinor fields over a semi Riemannian spin manifold does not extend to powers thereof in general. For odd powers one has to add lower order curvature correction terms in order to obtain conformal covariance. We derive an algorithmic construction in terms of associated tractor bundles to compute these correction terms. Depending on the signature of the semi Riemannian manifold in question, the obtained conformal powers of the Dirac operator turn out to be formally self-adjoint with respect to the $L^2-$scalar product, or formall…
Accurate asymptotic expressions are given for the exponentially small eigenvalues of Witten Laplacians acting on p-forms. The key ingredient, which replaces explicit formulas for global quasimodes in the case p = 0, is Barannikov's presentation of Morse theory.
In this paper, we derive the evolution equation for the first eigenvalue of the Witten-Laplace operator acting on the space of functions along the mean curvature flow on a closed oriented manifold. We show some interesting monotonic quantities under the mean curvature flow.
In the present paper, we consider the Hodge-de Rham Laplacian that acts on conformal Killing and projective Killing one-forms of a compact Riemannian manifold.
For a closed surface M with metric g, the Robin mass m(p) at the point p is the value of the Green function G(p,q) at p=q after the logarithmic singularity has been removed. The Laplacian-mass is the average value of the Robin mass, minus the value of the Robin mass for the round sphere of the same area. The Laplacian-mass is a spectral invariant which is a natural analog of the ADM mass for asymptotically flat manifolds. We show that if M is a torus, then the minimum value of the Laplacian-mass on the conformal class of g is negative. It is attained by a (smooth) metric for which one gets a s…
Let $(X,g)$ be a compact manifold with boundary $M^n$ and $σ$ a defining function of $M$. To these data, we associate natural conformally covariant polynomial one-parameter families of differential operators $C^\infty(X) \to C^\infty(M)$. They arise through a residue construction which generalizes an earlier construction in the framework of Poincaré-Einstein metrics. The main ingredient of the definition of residue families are eigenfunctions of the Laplacian of the singular metric $σ^{-2}g$. We prove that if $σ$ is an approximate solution of a singular Yamabe problem, these families can be wr…
In the study of conformal geometry, the method of elliptic partial differential equations is playing an increasingly significant role. Since the solution of the Yamabe problem, a family of conformally covariant operators (for definition, see section 2) generalizing the conformal Laplacian, and their associated conformal invariants have been introduced. The conformally covariant powers of the Laplacian form a family $P_{2k}$ with $k \in \mathbb N$ and $k \leq \frac{n}{2}$ if the dimension $n$ is even. Each $P_{2k}$ has leading order term $(- Δ)^k$ and is equal to $ (- Δ) ^k$ if the metric is fl…
We compute the eigenvalues with multiplicities of the Lichnerowicz Laplacian acting on the space of symmetric covariant tensor fields on the Euclidian sphere $S^n$. The spaces of symmetric eigentensors are explicitly given.
