Sur le spectre des fibrés en tore qui s'effondrent. (On the spectrum of collapsing torus bundles.) (Q1865660)

The author considers small invariant eigenvalues of the \(p\)-Laplacian on torus bundles \(M\) over the circle \(S^1\) and the \(2\)-dimensional torus \(T^2\). The torus bundle is \(M=\Gamma \setminus G\) where the group \(G\) is constructed explicitly starting from an \(n \times n\)-matrix \(B\) and a lattice \(\Gamma \subset G\). For example, \(G\) is the \(3\)-dimensional Heisenberg group when \(B=\begin{pmatrix} 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 0\end{pmatrix}\). Here, a small invariant eigenvalue means that there is a family \((g_\varepsilon)\) of homogeneous metrics on \(M\) such that the diameter and the absolute value of the sectional curvature of \((M,g_\varepsilon)\) are uniformly bounded in \(\varepsilon>0\) and such that there is a non-zero eigenvalue \(\lambda_{p,j}(M,g_\varepsilon)\) of the Laplacian acting on \(G\)-invariant \(p\)-forms converging to \(0\) as \(\varepsilon \to 0\). These eigenvalues are also (small) eigenvalues for the Laplacian acting on all \(p\)-forms. Note that the space of invariant \(p\)-forms is finite-dimensional. A main result is the existence of exactly \(k\) small invariant eigenvalues, where \(k\) is the difference of the algebraic and geometric multiplicity of the eigenvalue \(0\) of \(B\). By a result of \textit{S.~Chanillo} and \textit{F. Trèves} [J.~Differ.~Geom.~45, 273-287 (1997; Zbl 0874.58087)] the existence of small eigenvalues implies that the injectivity radius of \((M,g_\varepsilon)\) tends to \(0\) as well, i.e., the manifold collapses. The situation in this article is more general than the so called \textit{adiabatic limit} (i.e. a family of metrics which is homothetically tending to \(0\) in the vertical direction and which is constant in the horizontal direction). In the latter case, there are no small eigenvalues. For \(p\)-forms (\(p \geq 2\)) and semi-simple matrix \(B\) there are no small eigenvalues for the Laplacian on invariant \(p\)-forms. Furthermore, the existence of small eigenvalues for \(n=2\) or \(3\) for the invariant \(p\)-Laplacian (\(1 \leq p \leq n = \dim M-1\)) implies that \(G\) is nilpotent. The second part deals with principal bundles over \(T^2\). The author shows that the Laplacian on invariant \(p\)-forms on the bundle \(M\) has a unique non-zero eigenvalue of multiplicity \(\left(\begin{smallmatrix} \dim M - 2 \\ p - 1\end{smallmatrix}\right)\) which is given explicitely. Here, in contrast to the previous result, the adiabatic limit produces small eigenvalues. Furthermore, there exists a family of collapsing metrics with bounded curvature and diameter without small eigenvalues.