The Dirac operator on hyperbolic manifolds of finite volume (Q1609774)

Let \((M,g)\) be a hyperbolic manifold of finite volume and dimension \(m\). Assume given a spin structure on \((M,g)\) and let \(D\) be the associated Dirac operator. Let \(\text{spec}(D)\), \(\text{spec}_e(D)\), and \(\text{spec}_d(D)\) be the spectrum, essential spectrum, and discrete spectrum of \(D\), respectively. The author shows: Theorem. If the spin structure is trivial along at least one cusp, then \(\text{spec}(D)=\text{spec}_e(D)=R\). If the spin structure is non-trivial along all cusps, then the spectrum is discrete and \(\text{spec}(D)=\text{spec}_d(D)\). If \(m=2,3\) and if \(M\) has only one cusp, then the spin structure is necessarily non-trivial and hence is discrete. If \(M\) is a surface with at least \(2\) cusps, then both cases can occur; the spin structure can always be made trivial if there are an even number of cusps. In three dimensions, the situation is a bit different. The author shows: \noindent Theorem. Let \(K\subset S^3\) be a link in the \(3\) sphere and let \(M=S^3-K\) carry a hyperbolic metric of finite volume. If the linking number of all pairs of components \((K_i,K_j)\) in \(K\) is even for \(i\neq j\), then the spectrum of the Dirac operator is discrete for all spin structures and \(\text{spec}(D)=\text{spec}_d(D)\). If there are two components so the linking number of \((K_i,K_j)\) is odd for \(i\neq j\), then \(M\) has a spin structure with \(\text{spec}(D)=R\). \smallbreak The author also studies the behavior under the degeneration process in \(2\) and \(3\) dimensions where the spin structure on \(M\) is in a suitable sense the limit of spin structures on the \(M_i\).