Remarks on the compactness of isospectral sets in low dimensions (Q1180462)

Let \(M^ 3\) be a compact 3-manifold without boundary. Let \(\ell(M)\) be the length of the shortest closed geodesic. There are many examples of compact Riemannian manifolds which are isospectral but not isometric; the eigenvalue spectrum of the Laplacian on functions does not determine \(M\) up to isometry. In dimension 2, it is known that the space of isospectral manifolds is compact modulo gauge equivalence. In dimension 3, it is known that the space of isospectral manifolds within a conformal class is similarly compact. The author proves: Theorem. The space of compact isospectral 3-manifolds for which \(\ell(M)\) is uniformly bounded from below is compact in the \(C^ \infty\) topology; in particular, there are only finitely many diffeomorphism types of isospectral 3-manifolds with \(\ell(M)\geq\ell_ 0>0\). The paper is a lovely blend of local and global analysis; the heat invariants play a fundamental role as do some very delicate Sobolev estimates. Bounding the length of the shortest geodesic was also a crucial step in studying the dimension 2 case and this analysis shows how isospectral sets of 3-manifolds could (a priori) degenerate as \(\ell(M)\to 0\).