On the nodal lines of Eisenstein series on Schottky surfaces (Q521153)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a convex co-compact group acting by isometries on the hyperbolic plane \(\mathbb{H}^2\). Thus \(X:=\Gamma \backslash \mathbb{H}^2\) has infinite area and the ends are hyperbolic funnels. This article studies nodal sets (i.e., zero sets of eigenfunctions) of Eisenstein series on \(X\). Like in the finite volume case, Eisenstein series are eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator in the continuous spectrum. In this unusual context for the study of nodal sets, it turns out that there are always infinitely many nodal domains (i.e., connected components of \(X\) minus a nodal set). Under some technical assumptions, the authors prove the following statement for nodal sets \(\{ \mathcal N_\lambda : \lambda\geq0\}\) (the eigenvalue for \(\mathcal N_\lambda\) is \(1/4+\lambda^2\)) and a geodesic \(\mathcal{C}\) on \(X\): for all compact non-empty segment \(\mathcal C_0 \subset \mathcal C\), there is \(c>0\) such that \(c^{-1} \lambda \leq \#(\mathcal N\cap \mathcal{C}_0) \leq c \lambda\), as \(\lambda\) goes to infinity. The article also includes a generalization of Courant's nodal domain theorem. It bounds the number of nodal domains in a distinguished compact subset \(X_0\) of \(X\) (roughly, \(X_0\) is \(X\) with funnels removed).