Spectrum of the Laplacian on manifolds with Spin(9) holonomy (Q1000631)

Let \((M,g)\) be a complete noncompact Riemannian manifold with holonomy group Spin(9). The work of \textit{R. B. Brown} and \textit{A. Gray} [Diff. Geometry, in Honor of Kentaro Yano, 41--59 (1972; Zbl 0245.53020)] shows that \((M,g)\) is locally symmetric and (since \((M,g)\) is non-compact) its universal cover is the Cayley hyperbolic space \(H_O^2\). The authors use the fact that \((M,g)\) supports a global parallel \(8\)-form to show that any harmonic function with bounded Dirichlet integral is Cayley harmonic. With a suitable lower bound assumption on the first eigenvalue \(\lambda_1\), the authors show there is one infinite volume end. In the case that \(\lambda_1=121\) attains the maximal value, the authors study the Busemann function to prove that either \(M\) has only one end or \(M\) splits as \(R\times N\) where \(N\) is given by a level set of the Busemann function.