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Igor Wigman

Publications and source records attributed to Igor Wigman.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Sign-balance of random Laplace eigenfunctions

Motivated by the problem of the small-scale sign distribution of Laplace eigenfunctions, we introduce a strong notion of sign-balance for (eigen)functions, and prove that random eigenfunctions are sign-balanced above a precisely determined scale with almost full probability. The scale is proven to be optimal up to a logarithmic power of the energy. Our results include the important case of random spherical harmonics, as well as more general band-limited random waves on smooth Riemannian manifolds. Extending the notion of balance to arbitrary levels, we determine the precise optimum scale above which random eigenfunctions are volume-balanced with respect to non-zero levels. Beyond their intrinsic interest, our results serve as a model for a natural conjecture on the optimal scale at which deterministic Laplace eigenfunctions are sign-balanced.

math.PR↗
arXiv2025

On the supremum of random cusp forms

A random ensemble of cusp forms for the full modular group is introduced. For a weight-$k$ cusp form, restricted to a compact subdomain of the modular surface, the true order of magnitude of its expected supremum is determined to be $\asymp \sqrt{\log{k}}$, in line with the conjectured bounds. Additionally, the exponential concentration of the supremum around its median is established. Contrary to the compact case, it is shown that the global expected supremum, which is attained around the cusp, grows like $k^{1/4}$, up to a logarithmic factor.

math.NT↗
arXiv2024

The giant component of excursion sets of spherical Gaussian ensembles: existence, uniqueness, and volume concentration

We establish the existence and uniqueness of a well-concentrated giant component in the supercritical excursion sets of three important ensembles of spherical Gaussian random fields: Kostlan's ensemble, band-limited ensembles, and the random spherical harmonics. Our main results prescribe quantitative bounds for the volume fluctuations of the giant that are essentially optimal for non-monochromatic ensembles, and suboptimal but still strong for monochromatic ensembles. Our results support the emerging picture that giant components in Gaussian random field excursion sets have similar large-scale statistical properties to giant components in supercritical Bernoulli percolation. The proofs employ novel decoupling inequalities for spherical ensembles which are of independent interest.

math.PR↗
arXiv2023

Eigenvalue clusters for the hemisphere Laplacian with variable Robin condition

We study the eigenvalue clusters of the Robin Laplacian on the 2-dimensional hemisphere with a variable Robin coefficient on the equator. The $\ell$'th cluster has $\ell+1$ eigenvalues. We determine the asymptotic density of eigenvalues in the $\ell$'th cluster as $\ell$ tends to infinity. This density is given by an explicit integral involving the even part of the Robin coefficient.

math.SP↗
arXiv2023

Around the Gauss circle problem: Hardy's conjecture and the distribution of lattice points near circles

Hardy conjectured that the error term arising from approximating the number of lattice points lying in a radius-$R$ disc by its area is $O(R^{1/2+o(1)})$. One source of support for this conjecture is a folklore heuristic that uses i.i.d. random variables to model the lattice points lying near the boundary and square-root cancellation of sums of these random variables. We examine this heuristic by studying how these lattice points interact with one another and prove that their autocorrelation is determined in terms of a random model. Additionally, it is shown that lattice points near the boundary which are "well separated" behave independently. We also formulate a conjecture concerning the distribution of pairs of these lattice points.

math.NT↗
arXiv2023

Almost sure GOE fluctuations of energy levels for hyperbolic surfaces of high genus

We study the variance of a linear statistic of the Laplace eigenvalues on a hyperbolic surface, when the surface varies over the moduli space of all surfaces of fixed genus, sampled at random according to the Weil-Petersson measure. The ensemble variance of the linear statistic was recently shown to coincide with that of the corresponding statistic in the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE) of random matrix theory, in the double limit of first taking large genus and then shrinking size of the energy window. In this note we show that in this same limit, the energy variance for a typical surface is close to the GOE result, a feature called "ergodicity" in the random matrix theory literature.

math.SP↗
arXiv2023

On the Central Limit Theorem for linear eigenvalue statistics on random surfaces of large genus

We study the fluctuations of smooth linear statistics of Laplace eigenvalues of compact hyperbolic surfaces lying in short energy windows, when averaged over the moduli space of surfaces of a given genus. The average is taken with respect to the Weil-Petersson measure. We show that first taking the large genus limit, then a short window limit, the distribution tends to a Gaussian. The variance was recently shown to be given by the corresponding quantity for the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble (GOE), and the Gaussian fluctuations are also consistent with those in Random Matrix Theory, as conjectured in the physics literature for a fixed surface.

math.SP↗
arXiv2022

On the Robin spectrum for the equilateral triangle

The equilateral triangle is one of the few planar domains where the Dirichlet and Neumann eigenvalue problems were explicitly determined, by Lamé in 1833, despite not admitting separation of variables. In this paper, we study the Robin spectrum of the equilateral triangle, which was determined by McCartin in 2004 in terms of a system of transcendental coupled secular equations. We give uniform upper bounds for the Robin-Neumann gaps, showing that they are bounded by their limiting mean value, which is hence an almost sure bound. The spectrum admits a systematic double multiplicity, and after removing it we study the gaps in the resulting desymmetrized spectrum. We show a spectral gap property, that there are arbitrarily large gaps, and also arbitrarily small ones, moreover that the nearest neighbour spacing distribution of the desymmetrized spectrum is a delta function at the origin. We show that for sufficiently small Robin parameter, the desymmetrized spectrum is simple.

math.SP↗
arXiv2021

The Robin problem on rectangles

We study the statistics and the arithmetic properties of the Robin spectrum of a rectangle. A number of results are obtained for the multiplicities in the spectrum, depending on the Diophantine nature of the aspect ratio. In particular, it is shown that for the square, unlike the case of Neumann eigenvalues where there are unbounded multiplicities of arithmetic origin, there are no multiplicities in the Robin spectrum for sufficiently small (but nonzero) Robin parameter except a systematic symmetry. In addition, uniform lower and upper bounds are established for the Robin-Neumann gaps in terms of their limiting mean spacing. Finally, that the pair correlation function of the Robin spectrum on a Diophantine rectangle is shown to be Poissonian.

math.SP↗
arXiv2021

Expected nodal volume for non-Gaussian random band-limited functions

The asymptotic law for the expected nodal volume of random non-Gaussian monochromatic band-limited functions is determined in vast generality. Our methods combine microlocal analytic techniques and modern probability theory. A particularly challenging obstacle needed to overcome is the possible concentration of nodal volume on a small proportion of the manifold, requiring solutions in both disciplines. As for the fine aspects of the distribution of nodal volume, such as its variance, it is expected that the non-Gaussian monochromatic functions behave qualitatively differently compared to their Gaussian counterpart, with some conjectures been put forward.

math.PR↗
arXiv2021

Differences between Robin and Neumann eigenvalues

Let $Ω\subset \mathbb R^2$ be a bounded planar domain, with piecewise smooth boundary $\partial Ω$. For $σ>0$, we consider the Robin boundary value problem \[ -Δf =λf, \qquad \frac{\partial f}{\partial n} + σf = 0 \mbox{ on } \partial Ω\] where $ \frac{\partial f}{\partial n} $ is the derivative in the direction of the outward pointing normal to $\partial Ω$. Let $0<λ^σ_0\leq λ^σ_1\leq \dots $ be the corresponding eigenvalues. The purpose of this paper is to study the Robin-Neumann gaps \[ d_n(σ):=λ_n^σ-λ_n^0 . \] For a wide class of planar domains we show that there is a limiting mean value, equal to $2{\rm length}(\partialΩ)/{\rm area}(Ω)\cdot σ$ and in the smooth case, give an upper bound of $d_n(σ)\leq C(Ω) n^{1/3}σ$ and a uniform lower bound. For ergodic billiards we show that along a density-one subsequence, the gaps converge to the mean value. We obtain further properties for rectangles, where we have a uniform upper bound, and for disks, where we improve the general upper bound.

math.AP↗
arXiv2020

No repulsion between critical points for planar Gaussian random fields

We study the behaviour of the point process of critical points of isotropic stationary Gaussian fields. We compute the main term in the asymptotic expansion of the two-point correlation function near the diagonal. Our main result implies that for a 'generic' field the critical points neither repel nor attract each other. Our analysis also allows to study how the short-range behaviour of critical points depends on their index.

math.PR↗
arXiv2020

Nodal deficiency of random spherical harmonics in presence of boundary

We consider a random Gaussian model of Laplace eigenfunctions on the hemisphere satisfying the Dirichlet boundary conditions along the equator. For this model we find a precise asymptotic law for the corresponding zero density functions, in both short range (around the boundary) and long range (far away from the boundary) regimes. As a corollary, we were able to find a logarithmic negative bias for the total nodal length of this ensemble relatively to the rotation invariant model of random spherical harmonics. Jean Bourgain's research, and his enthusiastic approach to the nodal geometry of Laplace eigenfunctions, has made a crucial impact in the field and the current trends within. His works on the spectral correlations (Theorem 2.2 in Krishnapur, Kurlberg and Wigman (2013)) and joint with Bombieri (Bourgain and Bombieri (2015)) have opened a door for an active ongoing research on the nodal length of functions defined on surfaces of arithmetic flavour, like the torus or the square. Further, Bourgain's work on toral Laplace eigenfunctions (Bourgain (2014)), also appealing to spectral correlations, allowed for inferring deterministic results from their random Gaussian counterparts.

math-ph↗
arXiv2020

On the distribution of lattice points on hyperbolic circles

We study the fine distribution of lattice points lying on expanding circles in the hyperbolic plane $\mathbb{H}$. The angles of lattice points arising from the orbit of the modular group $PSL_{2}(\mathbb{Z})$, and lying on hyperbolic circles, are shown to be equidistributed for generic radii. However, the angles fail to equidistribute on a thin set of exceptional radii, even in the presence of growing multiplicity. Surprisingly, the distribution of angles on hyperbolic circles turns out to be related to the angular distribution of $\mathbb{Z}^2$-lattice points (with certain parity conditions) lying on circles in $\mathbb{R}^2$, along a thin subsequence of radii. A notable difference is that measures in the hyperbolic setting can break symmetry - on very thin subsequences they are not invariant under rotation by $\fracπ{2}$, unlike the Euclidean setting where all measures have this invariance property.

math.NT↗
arXiv2020

On the Robin spectrum for the hemisphere

We study the spectrum of the Laplacian on the hemisphere with Robin boundary conditions. It is found that the eigenvalues fall into small clusters around the Neumann spectrum, and satisfy a Szegő type limit theorem. Sharp upper and lower bounds for the gaps between the Robin and Neumann eigenvalues are derived, showing in particular that these are unbounded. Further, it is shown that except for a systematic double multiplicity, there are no multiplicities in the spectrum as soon as the Robin parameter is positive, unlike the Neumann case which is highly degenerate. Finally, the limiting spacing distribution of the desymmetrized spectrum is proved to be the delta function at the origin.

math.SP↗
arXiv2020

The defect of toral Laplace eigenfunctions and Arithmetic Random Waves

We study the defect (or "signed area") distribution of toral Laplace eigenfunctions restricted to shrinking balls of radius above the Planck scale, in either random Gaussian scenario ("Arithmetic Random Waves"), or deterministic eigenfunctions averaged w.r.t. the spatial variable. In either scenario we exploit the associated symmetry of the eigenfunctions to show that the expectation (Gaussian or spatial) vanishes. Our principal results concern the high energy limit behaviour of the defect variance.

math-ph↗
arXiv2019

Direction distribution for nodal components of random band-limited functions on surfaces

Let $(M,g)$ be a smooth compact Riemannian surface with no boundary. Given a smooth vector field $V$ with finitely many zeroes on $M$, we study the distribution of the number of tangencies to $V$ of the nodal components of random band-limited functions. It is determined that in the high-energy limit, these obey a universal deterministic law, independent of the surface $M$ and the vector field $V$, that is supported precisely on the even integers $2 \mathbb{Z}_{> 0}$.

math.PR↗