Determinants of Laplacians (Q1089032)

Let \(\Gamma <\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb R)\) be a discrete subgroup such that \(\Gamma\setminus\mathfrak H\) is a compact Riemann surface of genus \(\geq 2\), where \(\mathfrak H\) denotes the upper half-plane. The author considers \[ D_{2n}=-y^ 2(\partial^ 2/\partial x^ 2+\partial^ 2/\partial y^ 2)+2iny(\partial /\partial x)\qquad (n\in {\mathbb Z}) \] as a self-adjoint linear operator on an appropriate space of automorphic forms with transformation behaviour governed by \(\chi^{2n}\), where \(\chi\) is an odd character on \(\Gamma\). The main result of the work under review is Theorem 1 which says that \(\det (D_{\nu}+s(s-1))\) is equal to the Selberg zeta-function \(Z_{\nu}(s)\) for \(\chi^{\nu}\) \((\nu =0,1)\) times an elementary factor involving the Barnes double gamma function. The proof is based on a regularization procedure for determinants of Laplacians. The connections with recent work on string theory are indicated.