Asymptotic expansions and conformal covariance of the mass of conformal differential operators (Q1674869)

Let \((M, g)\) be a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension \(n.\) For \(m\in\mathbb{N},\) an \(m\)-Laplace type operator is a differential operator \(L\) of order \(2m,\) acting on sections of a metric vector bundle \(\mathcal{V}\) over \(M,\) and such that the principal symbol of \(L\) is the \(m\)-th power of a Laplace type operator. For \(s\in\mathbb{C},\) denote by \(L^{-s}\) the complex powers of \(L,\) defined via functional calculus. The author gives an explicit description of the full asymptotic expansion of the Schwartz kernel of \(L^{-s}\) in terms of Riesz distributions. More precisely, if \(\frac{n}{2}-ms\not\in\mathbb{Z}\) then the Schwartz kernel of \(L^{-s}\) has an asymptotic expansion near the diagonal in \(\mathcal{D}' (M\times M)\) of the form \[ L^{-s}(x,y) \sim \sum_{j=0}^\infty \Phi^L_j(x,y)\left({s-1}+\frac{j}{m}\atop {\frac{j}{m}}\right) I_{2ms+2j}(x,y), \] where \(\Phi^L_j(x,y)\) are the heat kernel coefficients (coming from the Minakshisundaram-Pleijel short-time asymptotic expansion of the heat kernel) and \(I_\alpha\) are Riesz distributions, depending meromorphically on \(\alpha\in\mathbb{C}.\) The constant term in this asymptotic expansion turns out to be given by the local zeta function of \(L\) and, in particular, the constant term in the asymptotic expansion of the Green's function \(L^{-1}\) is called the mass of \(L.\) It is shown that for general conformally invariant \(m\)-Laplace operators \(L,\) that mass is a conformal invariant when the dimension of \(M\) is odd and \(\text{Ker}\,L = 0.\) Moreover, a precise description is given of the failure of conformal invariance in the case when these two conditions are not satisfied.