Polygons and multi-product of eigenfunctions

Abstract

Let $M$ be a compact Riemannian manifold without boundary, with $L^2$-normalized Laplace-Beltrami eigenfunctions $\{e_j\}_j$, which satisfy $\Delta_g e_j = -\lambda_j^2 e_j$. We study the following inner product of eigenfunctions \[ \langle e_{i_1} e_{i_2} \ldots e_{i_k}, e_{i_{k+1}} \rangle = \int e_{i_1} e_{i_2}\ldots e_{i_k} \overline{e_{i_{k+1}}} \, dV. \] We show that, after a mild averaging in the frequency variables, the main $\ell^2$-concentration of this inner product is determined by the measure of a set of configurations of $(k+1)$-gons whose side lengths are the frequencies $\lambda_{i_1}, \lambda_{i_2}, \dots, \lambda_{i_{k+1}}$. We prove that a rapidly vanishing proportion of this mass lies in the regime where $\lambda_{i_1}, \lambda_{i_2}, \dots, \lambda_{i_{k+1}}$ cannot occur as the side lengths of any $(k+1)$-gon.