The zeta functional determinants on manifolds with boundary. I: The formula (Q1363570)

The authors derive formulas for the functional determinant for certain elliptic, self-adjoint, conformally covariant boundary value problems, on 3- and 4-dimensional compact Riemannian manifolds with smooth boundary. Roughly speaking, the calculation of the functional determinant of a conformally covariant differential operator \(A\) of order \(2\ell\) on a compact \(n\)-manifold (with or without boundary) is reduced to the computation of the \(n\)-th heat invariant in the trace expansion \(\text{Tr} [\exp(-t A)]\sim\sum_0^\infty a_k[A]t^{(k-n)/2\ell}\). In principle, \(a_n[A]\) can be computed explicity in terms of integrals of local expressions in the Riemannian curvature and its derivatives; in practice, as the dimension goes up, the combinatorial complexity of the formulas becomes formidable. In dimension 4, the boundaryless case is quite manageable [see \textit{T. P. Branson, S.-Y. A. Chang} and \textit{P. Yang}, Commun. Math. Phys. 149, No. 2, 241-262 (1992; Zbl 0761.58053)], however, the boundary case requires a good deal of calculations using invariance theory and conformal geometry. The authors perform this task in 3 and 4 dimensions obtaining formulas of type \(a_4[A_w]=\sum_1^\ell \lambda_j(A) {\mathcal H}_j[w]\), where \(A\) is the operator for the given boundary value problem in the ``background metric'' \(g\), \( A_w\) the one in the metric \(e^{2w}g\), the \(\lambda_j(A)\) are constants depending only on \(A\), and the functionals \({\mathcal H}_j[w]\) are certain integrals involving the curvature and the conformal factor \(w\). When \(n=3\) there are only \(\ell=4\) terms, and when \(n=4\) there are \(\ell=11\) terms. In the latter case, the computation is based on an earlier formula obtained by \textit{T. P. Branson} and \textit{P. B. Gilkey} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 344, No. 2, 479-531 (1994; Zbl 0811.58060)] involving a similar expression with 13 terms. In a companion paper [reviewed below as Zbl 0914.58040], the authors apply such a formula to study extremal problems for the determinant on 4-manifolds with boundary.