Elliptic operators and covers of Riemannian manifolds (Q5961428)

Let \(S=\Gamma\setminus H\) be a compact Riemann surface of genus \(g\geq 2\) where \(H\) is the Poincaré upper half plane and \(\Gamma\) is a discrete subgroup of \(\text{PSL}(2,\mathbb{R})\). In his paper in [Duke Math. J. 72, No. 3, 725-738 (1993; Zbl 0798.11018)], \textit{J. A. Rhodes} has obtained a result concerning the limit of some Riemannian metrics of a sequence \((S_n)\) of compact Riemann surfaces corresponding to \(\Gamma_1\supset \Gamma_2 \supset \dots \supset \Gamma_n\supset\dots\); \(\bigcap^\infty_{n=1} \Gamma_n=1\). The author generalizes Rhodes' result to the case of Riemannian manifolds \(M_n=\Gamma_n\setminus \overline{M}\) of higher dimension, where \(\overline{M}\) is a symmetric space of noncompact type. The proofs rely upon spectral theory and index theory of elliptic operators.