Spectral estimates for compact hyperbolic space forms and the Selberg zeta function for \(p\)-spectra. I (Q686826)

Let \(\Gamma\) be a cocompact discontinuous group acting fixed-point freely on the \(n\)-dimensional hyperbolic space \(\mathbb{H}^n\), and consider the space form \(V= \Gamma \backslash \mathbb{H}^n\). If \(\omega\) is a closed geodesic of \(V\), the parallel displacement along \(\omega\) induces an isometry of the tangent space in any point of \(\omega\) with eigenvalues \(\beta_1(\omega), \dots, \beta_{n-1} (\omega)\), 1. Let \(e_p (\omega)\) denote the \(p\)-th elementary symmetric function of the \(\beta_i (\omega)\) \((i=1, \dots, n-1)\), and put \(e_0 (\omega) =1\). Further let \(P_p(T)\) be the sum of the numbers \(e_p(\omega)\) where the summation extends over all \(\omega\) such that \(\text{cosh} \ell (\omega)\leq T\) where \(\ell (\omega)\) denotes the length of \(\omega\). The main result of the work under review is Theorem A, which gives an estimate for \(P_p(T)\) as \(T\to\infty\). For \(p=0\) (and \(p=n-1)\) this is the usual asymptotic law for the number of closed geodesics of length at most \(T\); there is also a corresponding prime geodesic theorem. The author achieves a good error term \(E_n(T)\) with \(\log T\) in the denominator (well-known e.g. in the two-dimensional case). For \(p=1, \dots, n-2\) the author shows that \(P_p(T) =O(E_n(T))\); there is no leading term and the \(O\)-term is independent of \(p\). -- The proof is based on a version of Selberg's trace formula for the \(p\)-spectrum. This formula is applied to a Legendre function. See also the review of Part II below.