Spectral theory for the Weil-Petersson Laplacian on the Riemann moduli space (Q484258)

Let \(\mathcal{M}_\gamma\) be the Riemann moduli space of surfaces of genus \(\gamma\) equipped with the Weil-Peterson metric \(g_{WP}\). The moduli space \(\mathcal{M}_\gamma\) is a stratified space; there are singularities on the interior which are orbifold points which arise because the mapping class group does not act freely on Teichmüller space. The authors study the spectral theory of \((\mathcal{M}_\gamma,g_{WP})\). They show the scalar Laplacian \(\Delta\) is essentially self-adjoint with discrete spectrum. Let \(\omega_n\) be the volume of the unit ball in \(\mathbb R^n\) where \(n=\dim(\mathcal{M}_\gamma)\). If \(N(\lambda)\) is the spectral counting function which gives the number of eigenvalues of \(\Delta\) less than \(\lambda\), then \(N\) obeys an asymptotic growth law as \(\lambda\rightarrow\infty\) of the form \[ N(\lambda)=\omega_m\cdot(2\pi)^{-n}\mathrm{Vol}(\mathcal{M},g_{WP})\lambda^{n/2}+o(\lambda^{n/2})\text{ as }\lambda\rightarrow\infty. \] The first section is an introduction to the matter at hand. The second section introduces the geometry of the Weil-Petersson metric and its structure near the singular strata. In the third section, the essential self-adjointness of the Weil-Petersson Laplacian is established, suitable Hardy inequalities are examined, and interpolation inequalities are applied. The Weyl growth estimate for the eigenvalues given above is proved in the final section.