An inverse spectral problem on surfaces (Q2493382)

The purpose of this paper is to prove how the positivity of some operators on a Riemannian surface gives informations on the conformal type of the surface. Minimal submanifolds are solutions of a variational problem: they are critical points of the volume functional for deformations with compact support. The second derivative of the volume functional is given by a quadratic form associated to a selfadjoint operator (the stability operator). A minimal immersion is called stable when it is a local minimum of the volume functional, that is, when the stability operator is nonnegative. For a minimal surface \(M\) in \(\mathbb R^3\), the stability operator is given by \(S= \Delta + 2K\), where \(\Delta\) is the Laplacian of the surface, \(K\) is its curvature. For a surface immersed in a manifold with nonnegative scalar curvature, the positivity of the stability operator implies the positivity of the operator \(L = \Delta + K\). These lead the author to consider the problem of relating the positivity of the form \(\Delta + \lambda K\quad (\lambda \in \mathbb R)\) on a surface to the geometry of the surface. Let \((M,h)\) be a complete noncompact Riemannian surface. For all \(\lambda \in \mathbb R\), consider the operator \(L_{\lambda} = \Delta + \lambda K\) and the associated quadratic form \(q_{\lambda}\). The set \(I_h = \{\lambda \in \mathbb R| q_{\lambda}\) positive\(\}\) is a closed interval: \( I_h =[a_h,b_h]\) with \(-\infty\leq a_h \leq 0 \leq b_h \leq \infty\). The general problem is to find relations between the geometry of \(M\) and numbers \(a_h\) and \(b_h\). In the more general context of a complete noncompact Riemannian surface the author proves the following theorems. Theorem A. Let \((M,h)\) be a complete noncompact Riemannian surface. If \(b_h > \frac{1}{4}\) then \(M\) is conformally equvalent to \(\mathbb C\) or \(\mathbb C^*= \mathbb C\setminus\{0\}\). Theorem B. Let \((M,h)\) be a complete noncompact Riemannian surface. If there exit a compact domain \(\Omega \in M\) and a real \(\lambda > \frac{1}{4}\) such that \(q_{\lambda}(u) \geq 0\) for every \(C^{\infty}\)-function \(u\) with compact support in \(M\setminus \Omega\) then \(M\) is conformally equivalent to a compact Riemannian surface with a finite number of points removed. The author treats the particular case of complete conformal metrics on the unit disc, as well.