The Ricci flow on noncommutative two-tori (Q692871)

In Riemannian geometry and related physical applications, the study of Ricci flow governed by the evolution equation \(\frac{\partial g}{\partial t}=-2\operatorname{Ric}\left( g\right) \) of a Riemannian metric \(g\) on a manifold \(M\) with Ricci curvature tensor \(\operatorname{Ric}\left( g\right) \) has proven to be of great importance. In this paper, the authors formulate and study the notion of Ricci flow for noncommutative 2-tori in terms of the spectral data of Laplacian. Recall that the irrational rotation \(C^*\)-algebra \(\mathcal{A}_{\theta}\) with \(\theta\in\mathbb{R}\backslash\mathbb{Q}\), modeling a noncommutative 2-torus, is generated by unitary elements \(U\) and \(V\) subject to the relation \(U_{1}U_{2}=e^{2\pi i\theta}U_{2}U_{1}\), and there is a canonical \(\mathbb{T}^{2}\)-action \(\alpha\) on \(\mathcal{A}_{\theta}\) by algebra automorphisms \(\alpha_{z}\) for \(z\in\mathbb{T}^{2}\subset\mathbb{C}^{2}\) with \(\alpha_{z}\left( U_{i}\right) :=z_{i}U_{i}\), which gives rise to derivations \(\delta_{i}\), with \(\delta_{i}\left( U_{j}\right) =\delta _{ij}U_{j}\), on the dense `smooth' \ subalgebra \(A_{\theta}^{\infty}\), consisting of elements \(a\in \mathcal{A}_{\theta}\) with \(z\mapsto\alpha_{z}\left( a\right) \) smooth. Furthermore, \(\mathcal{A}_{\theta}\) has a unique normalized trace \(\tau\) with \(\tau\left( U_{1}^{m}U_{2}^{n}\right) =0\) for all \(\left( m,n\right) \neq\left( 0,0\right) \) in \(\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}\). Motivated by the evolution equation \(\frac{d\lambda}{dt}=\lambda\int_{M} f^{2}Rd\mu\), found by Di Cerbo, of an eigenvalue \(\lambda\) and corresponding normalized eigenfunction \(f\) of the Laplace operator where \(\mathbb R\) is the scalar curvature in the case of 2-dimensional closed surfaces \(M\) under some assumption on the existence of \(C^{1}\)-differentiable eigenvalues \(\lambda_{i}\left( t\right) \) and eigenfunctions \(f_{i}\left( t\right) \) along the Ricci flow, the authors propose the evolution equation \(\frac{d\lambda }{dt}=12\pi\lambda\zeta_{f^{2}}\left( 0\right) \) of the eigenvalues and corresponding eigenfunctions of the Laplacian \(\Delta^{\prime}\) as a version of Ricci flow on noncommutative 2-tori, where \(\Delta^{\prime} :=\partial_{\phi}^{\ast}\partial_{\phi}\) with \(\partial_{\phi}:=\delta _{1}+i\delta_{2}\) acting as an unbounded operator on the unitary left module \(H_{\phi}\) constructed from \(\mathcal{A}_{\theta}\) via \(\left\langle a,b\right\rangle _{\phi}:=\tau\left( b^{\ast}ae^{-h}\right) \) for some self-adjoint \(h\in A_{\theta}^{\infty}\), and justify it by showing \(\int _{M}fRd\mu=12\pi\zeta_{f}\left( 0\right) \), for \(f\in C^{\infty}\left( M\right) \) on a closed surface \(M\) and the zeta function \(\zeta_{f}\left( s\right) :=\text{Tr}\left( f\Delta^{-s}\right) \) having a meromorphic continuation at \(s=0\). Using results of Connes and Tretkoff concerning a Gauss-Bonnet theorem for noncommutative tori, the authors derive other equivalent descriptions in terms of the modular operator \(a\mapsto e^{-h}ae^{h}\) of the non-unimodular geometry \(e^{h/2}\Delta e^{h/2}\) for \(\Delta=\Delta^{\prime}\) with \(h=0\) and pseudodifferential calculus, such as \(\frac{d\lambda}{dt}=\lambda\tau\left( f^{2}\mathcal{R}\right) \;\)where \(\mathcal{R}\;\)is explicitly expressed as an integral involving the symbol of the resolvent of \(\Delta^{\prime}\).