Sup-norm of Hecke-Laplace eigenforms on \(S^3\) (Q2182393)

Non trivial local bounds for \(L^2\)-normalized cuspidal automorphic forms have been given in a breakthrough paper by \textit{H. Iwaniec} and \textit{P. Sarnak} [Ann. Math. (2) 141, 301--320 (1995; Zbl 0833.11019)]. The present paper belongs to the numerous works devoted to sup-norm bounds. The author considers the round sphere \(\mathbb S^3\) with the non-negative Laplace-Beltrami operator \(\Delta\) and the commutative Hecke-algebra generated by the operators \((T_n)_{n\ge1}\) defined by \(T_nf(\mathbf x)=\frac18\sum f(\mathbf m\mathbf x/\sqrt n)\) where the sum takes all integer points \(\mathbf m=(m_1,m_2,m_3,m_4)\in\mathbb Z^4\) of reduced norm \(\mathrm{nr}(\mathbf m)=m_1^2+m_2^2+m_3^2+m_4^2\) equal to \(n\) and viewed in the Hamilton quaternionic space \(\mathbb R^4\). Because of commutations between \(\Delta\) and all the \(T_n\), the subspaces \(V_{\lambda,\boldsymbol\tau}=\{\varphi\in L^2(\mathbb S^3); (\Delta+\lambda)\varphi=0,T_{2k+1}\varphi=\tau(2k+1)\varphi,k\in\mathbb N\}\) give an orthogonal decomposition for \(L^2(\mathbb S^3)\) in subspaces of Hecke-Laplace eigenforms with joint (odd) spectra \((\lambda,\boldsymbol\tau)=(\lambda,\tau(1),\tau(3),\dots)\). For any \(\varepsilon>0\), the author proves the existence of a constant \(C_\varepsilon\) such that \[ \|\varphi\|_\infty\le C_\varepsilon(1+\lambda)^{\frac38+\varepsilon}\|\varphi\|_2 \] for any Hecke-Laplace eigenform \(\varphi\in V_{\lambda,\boldsymbol\tau}\) with \(T_1\varphi=\varphi\). This sup-norm bound is a corollary of the fourth moments bound \[ \sup_{x\in\mathbb S^3}\sum_{\substack{(\lambda,\boldsymbol\tau)\\ \tau(1)=1}}\left[\sum_{\{\varphi\}\in\mathbf{b}V_{\lambda,\boldsymbol\tau}}|\varphi(x)|^2\right]^2\le \widetilde{C}_\varepsilon (1+\lambda)^{\frac 32+\varepsilon} \] where \(\lambda\) is a Laplace eigenvalue and \(\mathbf{b}V_{\lambda,\boldsymbol\tau}\) is the set of orthonormal basis for the joint eigenforms space \(V_{\lambda,\boldsymbol{\tau}}\). Let us remark that the general sup-norm for a \(3\)-dimensional compact closed Riemannian manifold \(X\) is \(\|\phi\|_\infty\le C_X(1+\lambda)^{1/2} \|\phi\|_2\) with \(\varphi\) an eigenform: it's optimal for \(X=\mathbb S^3\) with a family of zonal spherical eigenfunctions. It is commonly believed that a big exponent in the sup-norm bound is due to high multiplicity for Laplace eigenvalues. Considering Hecke-Laplace eigenforms decreases the multiplicities and the exponent should be effectively smaller, as proved in this paper: \(3/8+\varepsilon< 1/2\) for \(\varepsilon\in(0,1/8)\).