arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Julie Rowlett.
We show that trapezoids with identical Neumann spectra are congruent up to rigid motions of the plane. The proof is based on heat trace invariants and some new wave trace invariants associated to certain diffractive billiard trajectories. The reason we can only treat the Neumann case is that the wave trace is "more singular" for the Neumann case compared to the Dirichlet case. This is a new observation which is interesting on its own.
The fundamental gap conjecture was recently proven by Andrews and Clutterbuck: for any convex domain in $\R^n$ normalized to have unit diameter, the difference between the first two Dirichlet eigenvalues of the Laplacian is bounded below by that of the interval. In this work, we focus on the moduli spaces of simplices in all dimensions, and later specialize to the moduli space of Euclidean triangles. Our first theorem is a compactness result for the gap function on the moduli space of simplices in any dimension. Our second main result verifies a recent conjecture of Antunes-Freitas: for any Euclidean triangle normalized to have unit diameter, the fundamental gap is uniquely minimized by the equilateral triangle.
In this note, we present a compatibility test based on John Nash's game-theoretic notion of equilibrium strategy. The test must be taken separately by both partners, making it difficult for either partner alone to control the outcome. The mathematics behind the test including Nash's celebrated theorem and an example from the film, "A Beautiful Mind," are discussed as well as how to customize the test for more accurate results and how to modify the test to evaluate interpersonal relationships in other settings, not only romantic. To investigate the long-term dynamics of give and take in a relationship we introduce the "iterated dating dilemma" and apply the notion of "zero-determinant payoff strategy" introduced by Dyson and Press in 2012 for the iterated prisoner's dilemma.
Our main result is that if a generic convex domain in $\R^n$ collapses to a domain in $\R^{n-1}$, then the difference between the first two Dirichlet eigenvalues of the Euclidean Laplacian, known as the fundamental gap, diverges. The boundary of the domain need not be smooth, merely Lipschitz continuous. To motivate the general case, we first prove the analogous result for triangular and polygonal domains. In so doing, we prove that the first two eigenvalues of triangular domains cannot be polyhomogeneous on the moduli space of triangles without blowing up a certain point. Our results show that the gap generically diverges under one dimensional collapse and is bounded only if the domain is sufficiently close to a rectangle in two dimensions or a cylinder in higher dimensions.
By introducing a weight function to the Laplace operator, Bakry and Émery defined the "drift Laplacian" to study diffusion processes. Our first main result is that, given a Bakry-Émery manifold, there is a naturally associated family of graphs whose eigenvalues converge to the eigenvalues of the drift Laplacian as the graphs collapse to the manifold. Applications of this result include a new relationship between Dirichlet eigenvalues of domains in $\R^n$ and Neumann eigenvalues of domains in $\R^{n+1}$ and a new maximum principle. Using our main result and maximum principle, we are able to generalize \emph{all the results in Riemannian geometry based on gradient estimates to Bakry-Émery manifolds}.
Consider a quantum particle trapped between a curved layer of constant width built over a complete, non-compact, $\mathcal C^2$ smooth surface embedded in $\mathbb{R}^3$. We assume that the surface is asymptotically flat in the sense that the second fundamental form vanishes at infinity, and that the surface is not totally geodesic. This geometric setting is known as a quantum layer. We consider the quantum particle to be governed by the Dirichlet Laplacian as Hamiltonian. Our work concerns the existence of bound states with energy beneath the essential spectrum, which implies the existence of discrete spectrum. We first prove that if the Gauss curvature is integrable, and the surface is weakly $κ$-parabolic, then the discrete spectrum is non-empty. This result implies that if the total Gauss curvature is non-positive, then the discrete spectrum is non-empty. We next prove that if the Gauss curvature is non-negative, then the discrete spectrum is non-empty. Finally, we prove that if the surface is parabolic, then the discrete spectrum is non-empty if the layer is sufficiently thin.
In this note, we study the dynamics and associated zeta functions of conformally compact manifolds with variable negative sectional curvatures. We begin with a discussion of a larger class of manifolds known as convex co-compact manifolds with variable negative curvature. Applying results from dynamics on these spaces, we obtain optimal meromorphic extensions of weighted dynamical zeta functions and asymptotic counting estimates for the number of weighted closed geodesics. A meromorphic extension of the standard dynamical zeta function and the prime orbit theorem follow as corollaries. Finally, we investigate interactions between the dynamics and spectral theory of these spaces.
Let $Ω_0$ be a polygon in $\RR^2$, or more generally a compact surface with piecewise smooth boundary and corners. Suppose that $Ω_\e$ is a family of surfaces with $\calC^\infty$ boundary which converges to $Ω_0$ smoothly away from the corners, and in a precise way at the vertices to be described in the paper. Fedosov \cite{Fe}, Kac \cite{K} and McKean-Singer \cite{MS} recognized that certain heat trace coefficients, in particular the coefficient of $t^0$, are not continuous as $\e \searrow 0$. We describe this anomaly using renormalized heat invariants of an auxiliary smooth domain $Z$ which models the corner formation. The result applies both for Dirichlet and Neumann conditions. We also include a discussion of what one might expect in higher dimensions.
We prove a dynamical wave trace formula for asymptotically hyperbolic (n+1) dimensional manifolds with negative (but not necessarily constant) sectional curvatures which equates the renormalized wave trace to the lengths of closed geodesics. A corollary of this dynamical trace formula is a dynamical resonance-wave trace formula for compact perturbations of convex co-compact hyperbolic manifolds which we use to prove a growth estimate for the length spectrum counting function. We next define a dynamical zeta function and prove its analyticity in a half plane. In our main result, we produce a prime orbit theorem for the geodesic flow. This is the first such result for manifolds which have neither constant curvature nor finite volume. As a corollary to the prime orbit theorem, using our dynamical resonance-wave trace formula, we show that the existence of pure point spectrum for the Laplacian on negatively curved compact perturbations of convex co-compact hyperbolic manifolds is related to the dynamics of the geodesic flow.