Small eigenvalues of geometrically finite manifolds (Q1769159)

The author deals with a complete geometrically finite manifold of bounded negative curvature, infinite volume, and dimension at least 3. A lower bound for the bottom of the spectrum of the manifold is given. This bound only depends on the dimension of the manifold, the curvature bounds, and the volume of the one-neighborhood of the convex core and generalizes an earlier result of \textit{M. Burger} and \textit{R. Canary} [J. Reine Angew. Math. 454, 37--57 (1994; Zbl 0806.53046 )] for geometrically finite hyperbolic manifolds, with a simpler proof. It is also shown that the bottom of essential spectrum of the manifold is not smaller than \((n-1)^2/4\). Thus, the small part of the spectrum of the manifold consists of a collection of eigenvalues. It is given as well an upper bound for the number of eigenvalues contained in a closed interval \([0,(n-1)^2/4- \chi]\) for some \(\chi >0\). This bound only depends on the dimension of the manifold, the curvature bounds, the volume of the one-neighborhood on the convex core, and the choice of \(\chi\) and generalizes in a weaker form an estimate of \textit{P. Buser, B. Colbois} and \textit{J. Dodziuk} [J. Geom. Anal. 3, No. 1, 1--26 (1993; Zbl 0766.58054)] for manifolds of finite volume and bounded negative curvature.