Spectral limits for hyperbolic surfaces. I (Q1207422)

This paper is devoted to studying the behaviour of the spectrum of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on a Riemann surface as the surface is deformed by pinching one or more geodesics to yield cusps. The technique used in this paper consists in combining the Fourier development of an eigenfunction with respect to an elementary hyperbolic group and the existence of a collar around the corresponding geodesic in the Riemann surface which has area bounded below. Using these facts the author obtains estimates on the norms of the eigenfunctions in such collars and can prove, for example, that the set of eigenfunctions of moderate growth with bounded eigenvalues and bounded norm on the thick part of the Riemann surface is compact. From this he is able to deduce a criterion which ensures that eigenvalue families either converge to infinity or to one of a discrete set of eigenvalues. [Part II, see the review below].