A note on quantization of a free particle in the Zoll manifold (Q1076392)

The classical Hamiltonian of a free particle on a Riemannian manifold of dimension n and metric g is given by \[ H(x,\xi)=(1/2)\sum^{n}_{j,k=1}g^{jk}(x) \xi_ j \xi_ k, \] where \((x^ 1,...,x^ n,\xi_ 1,...,\xi_ n)\) are canonical coordinates on the cotangent bundle. Various procedures of quantization lead to a quantum Hamiltonian (*) \(\hat H=(\hslash^ 2/2)(\Delta +cR)\) corresponding to H, where \(\hslash =h/2\pi\) (h being Planck's constant), \(\Delta\) is the Laplace-Beltrami operator, R is the scalar curvature associated to g, and c is a constant. A Zoll manifold is a Riemannian manifold all of whose geodesics are closed and have common length \(2\pi\). On the sphere \(S^ n\) there is a smooth family of metrics g(s) (0\(\leq s\leq T)\) such that \((S^ n,g(s))\) is a Zoll manifold for each s and \(g(0)=g_ 0\) is the standard metric. For each such s let \(H_ s\) be the classical Hamiltonian of a free particle on \((S^ n,g(s))\), and let \(\hat H_ s\) be the corresponding quantum Hamiltonian. Let \(\{\lambda_ k\}^{\infty}_{k=0}\) be the spectrum of \(\hat H_ 0\). By a theorem of \textit{A. Weinstein} [Duke Math. J. 44, 883-892 (1977; Zbl 0385.58013); cf. also \textit{V. Guillemin}, Adv. Math. 42, 248-282 (1981; Zbl 0478.58029)] there exists a constant M (independent of k) such that the spectrum of each \(\hat H_ s\) (0\(\leq s\leq T)\) consists of clusters of points \(\{\lambda^ i_ k(s)\}\) \((i=1,...,N_ k)\) in the intervals \(I_ k=[\lambda_ k-M,\lambda_ k+M]\) \((k=0,1,2,...).\) The author's main result may now be stated as follows. Assume that \(n\geq 3\) and consider the arithmetic mean \[ {\bar \lambda}_ k(s)=(1/N_ k)\sum^{N_ k}_{i=1}\lambda^ i_ k(s) \] of the eigenvalues of \(\hat H_ s\) in the k-th cluster. Then \({\bar \lambda}{}_ k(s)\to \lambda_ k\) as \(k\to \infty\) for any Zoll metric g(s) if and only if the constant c in (*) equals 1/6. The proof of the sufficiency rests on a formula for the multiplicity of the eigenvalues of a quantum Hamiltonian due to \textit{Y. Colin de Verdière} [Comment. Math. Helv. 54, 508-522 (1979; Zbl 0459.58014)], and on a comparison of two expressions for the asymptotic expansion of the partition function. The necessity follows from results of the author [Compos. Math. 40, 319-324 (1980; Zbl 0422.53021)] on conformal deformations of the standard metric on the sphere. Quantization procedures based on Feynman's path integrals have yielded different values for the constant c in (*). By such an approach, \textit{S. I. Ben-Abraham} and \textit{A. Lonke} [J. Math. Phys. 14, 1935-1937 (1973)] obtained \(c=1/6\). This same value was derived by \textit{J. Elhadad} [C. R. Acad. Sci., Paris, Sér. A 285, 961-964 (1977; Zbl 0403.58002)] by introducing Maslov's index into the Kostant-Sternberg-Blattner pairing integral. Also via geometric quantization that value has been recovered by \textit{J. Śniatycki} [Geometric quantization and quantum mechanics (1980; Zbl 0429.58007), pp. 21, 134]. The author's result shows that from a spectral viewpoint the value \(c=1/6\) has a special meaning.