Fluctuations of the nodal length of random spherical harmonics (Q625483)

The author concentrates on the nodal sets on the sphere. Given an eigenvalue of the Laplace equation the corresponging eigenspace is the space of spherical harmonics of degree \(n\) and the author endows the space with a Gaussian probability measure. The main goal of the paper is the study of the distribution of a random variable for a random Gaussian and the principal result shows that the variance of the nodal length of the random spherical harmonics is of order \(\log n\). This behaviour is consistent with the one predicted by \textit{M. V. Berry} [J. Phys. A, Math. Gen. 35, No. 13, 3025--3038 (2002; Zbl 1044.81047)] for nodal lines on chaotic billiards. For the proof the author uses the Kac-Rice formula as a basic tool.