The spectrum of degenerating hyperbolic 3-manifolds (Q1324794)

According to the cusp closing theorem of \textit{W. P. Thurston} [The geometry and topology of 3-manifolds, Dept. of Math., Princeton Univ., Princeton, NJ (1980), \S 5.8], a complete noncompact 3-manifold \(M\) of constant negative curvature \(-1\) and finite volume is a limit of a sequence of compact hyperbolic manifolds \(M_i \to M\). The Laplacian on \(M\) has continuous spectrum filling the interval \([1,\infty)\) with multiplicity equal to the number of cusps (i.e. ideal points at the infinity). The authors investigate the rate of clustering of the eigenvalues of the Laplacian on \(M_i\) as \(i\) tends to infinity. Analogous questions on surfaces have been studied by Wolpert, Hejhal, Ji, Zworski, Colbois and Courtois. Problems of this kind do not arise in dimensions \(d \geq 4\) [cf. \textit{G. Gromov}, Hyperbolic manifolds according to Thurston and Jørgensen, Sém. Bourbaki Exp. No. 546, Lect. Notes Math. 842, 40-53 (1981; Zbl 0452.51017)]. Suppose \(M\) has only one cusp. Then, for large \(i\), \(M_i\) contains a metric tubular neighbourhood of a simple closed geodesic of length \(l_i \to 0\) and of radius \(R_i \to \infty\). Denote by \(\text{Spec} (\Delta_i)\) the spectrum of the Laplacian on \(M_i\) and let \(N_i(x) = \#\{ \lambda \in \text{Spec} (\Delta_i) : 1 = \lambda = 1 + x^2\}\). The result of the paper is that \[ N_i(x) = {x\over 2\pi} \log \left( {1\over l_i}\right) + O_x(1) = {x\over \pi} R_i + O_x(1). \] If \(M\) has \(q \geq 1\) cusps, then \(M_i\) have \(q\) shrinking geodesics surrounded by disjoint tubes and we have sums in the above formulas.