The semiclassical zeta function for geodesic flows on negatively curved manifolds (Q2356912): Difference between revisions

Let \(M\) denote a compact manifold of dimension \(2d+1\), and let \(\{f^{t} \}\) denote a contact Anosov flow on \(M\). An example is the geodesic flow on the unit tangent bundle \(T^{1}X\) of a compact Riemannian manifold \(X\) of dimension \(d\) and negative sectional curvature. The semi-classical (or Gutzwiller-Voros) zeta function \(Z_{sc}(s)\) defined by \(\{f^{t} \}\) is a holomorphic function without zeros defined for \({\mathrm {Re}}(s) > \zeta\), where \(\zeta\) is some positive real number. See the article for a precise definition of \(Z_{sc}(s)\) and \(\zeta\). The function \(Z_{sc}(s)\) extends to a meromorphic function on the whole complex plane \(\mathbb{C}\). If \(X\) is a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension 2 with constant sectional curvature \(-1\) and \(\{f^{t} \}\) is the geodesic flow on \(T^{1}X\) the function \(Z_{sc}(s)\) becomes the Selberg zeta function. In the 60's S.~Smale defined a different dynamical zeta function for flows on compact manifolds that also generalize the Selberg zeta function. If the flow is \(C^{\infty}\) and Anosov, then the Smale zeta function is known to define a meromorphic function on \(\mathbb{C}\). In this article the authors study the location of the zeros of \(Z_{sc}(s)\) and they obtain a generalization of the corresponding result for the Selberg zeta function. Let \(\chi_{0} > 0\) denote the expansion/contraction exponent of the contact Anosov flow \(\{f^{t} \}\). Then for arbitrarily small \(\tau > 0\) the following properties hold: \newline a) The zeros of \(Z_{sc}(s)\) are contained in the region \(U(\chi_{0}, \tau) = \{z \in \mathbb{C} : |{\mathrm {Re}}(z)| < \tau~{\mathrm {or}}~ {\mathrm {Re}}(z) < - \chi_{0} + \tau \}\), up to finitely many exceptions. \newline b) There exist at most finitely many poles of \(Z_{sc}(s)\) in the region \({\mathrm {Re}}(s) > - \chi_{0} + \tau\) \newline c) In the strip \(U(\tau) = \{z \in \mathbb{C} : |{\mathrm {Re}}(z)| < \tau \}\) \(Z_{sc}(s)\) has infinitely many zeros. More precisely: \newline d) There exists a positive number \(C\) such that if \(0 < \tau < \chi_{0}\) and \(\omega > 0\) is sufficiently large, then the number of zeros of \(Z_{sc}(s)\) with \(|{\mathrm {Re}}(s)| < \tau\) and \(|{\mathrm {Im}}(s)| \leq \omega\) is bounded above by \(C |\omega|^{d+1}\) and below by \(\frac{1}{C} |\omega|^{d+1}\).