Spectral determinants on Mandelstam diagrams (Q282585)

This interesting paper studies the \(\zeta\)-regularized determinant of Riemann surfaces equipped with a metric defined from a conformal flat singular metric \(|\omega|^2\). Such a metric is defined from a meromorphic differential \(\omega\) with purely imaginary periods and real residues. In the paper under review, \(\omega\) is mostly assumed to have simple zeroes. Riemann surfaces equipped with a conformal flat singular metric stand in a one-to-one correspondence with Mandelstam diagrams. Fixing the \(n\) poles of \(\omega\) and the genus \(g\) of the Riemann surface, the possible Mandelstam diagrams parametrises the moduli space \(\mathcal{M}_{g,n}\) of Riemann surfaces of genus \(g\) with \(n\) marked points. The condition that the poles of \(\omega\) are simple correspond to considering the top dimensional cell in \(\mathcal{M}_{g,n}\). Additional geometric context can be found in [the third author and \textit{D. Korotkin}, J. Differ. Geom. 82, No. 1, 35--100 (2009; Zbl 1175.30041)]. The main technical results concerns the spectral theory of the Laplacian in this particular geometry; possible conical points and cylindrical ends requires generalisations of several results known in the smooth setting. For instance, \textit{D. Burghelea} et al.'s Meyer-Vietoris formula [J. Funct. Anal. 107, No. 1, 34--65 (1992; Zbl 0759.58043)] for the determinant of Laplacians is generalised. The main result of the paper, Corollary 1 on page 593, computes the relative determinant \(\mathrm{det}(\Delta,\Delta^\circ)\) of the Laplacian \(\Delta\) of the Riemann surface and the model Laplacian \(\Delta^\circ\) on the flat cylinders at infinity. It is given in terms of the matrix \(\mathbb{B}\) of periods on the Riemann surface (see page 583), the \(\tau\)-function and a constant \(C\) independent of the moduli parameters by \[ \mathrm{det}(\Delta,\Delta^\circ)=C|\tau|^2\mathrm{det}(\mathcal{I}\mathbb{B}). \]