From Agmon-Kannai expansion to Korteweg-de Vries hierarchy (Q1819182)

It is known that the heat kernel \(H(t,x,y)\), i.e., the fundamental solution of the heat equation \((\frac{\partial} {\partial t}-L)f=0\) where \(L= \frac{\partial^2} {\partial x^2}+ u(x)\), has the following asymptotics \[ H(t,x,x)\sim \frac{1} {\sqrt{4\pi t}} \sum_{n=0}^\infty h_n[u] t^n \] as \(t\to +0\). Here \(h_n[u]\) are polynomials in \(u(x)\) and its derivative which are called heat invariants of the 1-D Schrödinger operator. In this note the author presents a new method for the computation of heat invariants of the 1-D Schrödinger operator. As a consequence he obtains simpler explicit formulas for \(h_n[u]\) and, hence, for the KdV hierarchy, which is based on an asymptotic expansion of resolvent kernels of elliptic operators.