Albanese maps and off diagonal long time asymptotics for the heat kernel (Q1971573)

Let \(k(t,x,y)\) denote the heat kernel on a Riemannian manifold \(X\). There is a well-known asymptotic formula for the behavior of this function as \(t\to 0\). If \(X\) is compact, then as \(t\to \infty\), \[ k(t,x,y)\sim \frac {1}{\text{Vol}(X)}+e^{-\lambda_{1}t}\sum_{j}\alpha_{j}(x)\alpha_{j}(y) +\dots, \] where \(\lambda_{1}\) is the smallest positive eigenvalue of the Laplacian on \(X\) and \(\left\{ \alpha_{j} \right\}\) is an orthonormal basis for the \(\lambda_{1}\)-eigenspace. If \(X\) is noncompact, then the asymptotics as \(t\to \infty\) of \(k(t,x,y)\) are not known in general. The authors consider the case where \(X\) is a noncompact Riemannian manifold endowed with the discontinuous free action of an abelian group \(\Gamma\) of isometries, such that the quotient \(M=\Gamma\backslash X\) is compact. The authors show that in this case, as \(t\to \infty\), \[ k(t,x,y)\sim \frac {C(X)}{(4\pi t)^{r/2}}\left( 1+c_{1}(x,y)t^{-1}+c_{2}(x,y)t^{-2}+\dots\right), \] where \(c_{l}(x,y)\sim \frac {1}{l!}( -\frac {\text{Vol}(M)}{4})^{l}d_{\Gamma}(x,y)^{2l}\) as \(d(x,y)\to\infty\). The constant \(C(X)\) and the \(\Gamma\)-Albanese pseudo distance \(d_{\Gamma}(x,y)\) are defined explicitly in the paper, and they depend on the action of \(\Gamma\) and the metric on \(X\). The coefficient \(c_{1}(x,y)\) is calculated explicitly. Using similar ideas, the authors also calculate the asymptotics of the transition probability of a random walk on a lattice graph. Various implications of these results are discussed.