Zonal Schrödinger operators on the \(n\)-sphere: Inverse spectral problem and rigidity (Q1813314)

Let \(\Delta\) be the Laplace-Beltrami operator on the \(n\)-sphere \(S^ n\). A potential \(V\) is said to be zonal if \(V(x) = V(\cos \varphi)\) \((\varphi\) is the angle between \(x\) and the \(x_ 1\)-axis, where \(x:=(x_ 1,x'))\). In addition, the operator \(H = - \Delta + V\) is called the zonal Schrödinger operator. The spectrum of \(H\) is known to consist of clusters of eigenvalues \(\{k(k + n-1) + \mu_{km} : m \leq k \}\). The author derives an asymptotic expansion for the spectral shifts \(\mu_{km}\) in powers of \(k^{-1}\), of the form \(\mu_{km} = a(m/k) + k^{-1} b(m/k) + k^{-2} c(m/k) + O(k^{-3})\), where \(a(r)\), \(b(r)\), \(c(r)\) are expressed in terms of the Radon transform on \(S^ n\), the Gegenbauer-Legendre operator and \(x(d/dx)\) applied to the even and odd parts of \(V\). This asymptotic expansion is applied to solve the inverse problem, to obtain the first three distributions in the asymptotic expansion of the Weinstein cluster distribution measures \(d \nu_ k = d_ k^{-1} \sum \delta (x - \mu_{km})\) and to establish local spectral rigidity for zonal potentials.