Curvature and sharp growth rates of log-quasimodes on compact manifolds (Q7028839)

This paper deals with properties of spectral projections of the Laplace-Beltrami operator \(\Delta_g\) associated with the metric \(g\) on a compact connected \(n\)-dimensional manifold \(M\). We then denote by \(0=\lambda_0<\lambda_1\leq \lambda_2\leq\cdots\) the eigenvalues of \(P=\sqrt{-\Delta_g}\) ordered in increasing value and repeated according to their multiplicity. The corresponding orthonormal basis of eigenvectors are denoted by \(e_j\) and we denote by \N\[\NE_jf=\int_M f(x)\overline{e_j(x)}\,\mathrm{d}V_g(x)\N\]\Nfor the projection on the span of \(e_j\). For an interval \(I\subset[0,+\infty)\), the corresponding spectral projection is given by \N\[\N\chi_I f=\sum_{j:\lambda_j\in I}E_jf.\N\]\NLet us denote by \N\[\Nq_c=2\dfrac{n+1}{n-1}.\N\]\NIn a previous work [\textit{C. D. Sogge}, J. Funct. Anal. 77, No. 1, 123--138 (1988; Zbl 0641.46011)], the second author proved the following universal bounds for spectral projections on intervals of lenght 1 and \(q>2\), \(\lambda\geq 1\) \N\[\N\|\chi_{[\lambda,\lambda+1]}f\|_{L^q(M)}\lesssim \lambda^{\mu(q)}\|f\|_{L^2(M)}\N\]\Nwhere \N\[\N\mu(q)=\begin{cases} n\left(\dfrac{1}{2}-\dfrac{1}{q}\right)-\dfrac{1}{2}&\mbox{for }q_c\leq q\leq+\infty\\\N\dfrac{n-1}{2}\left(\dfrac{1}{2}-\dfrac{1}{q}\right)&\mbox{for }2<q\leq q_c \end{cases}. \N\]\NNote that \(\mu(q_c)=\dfrac{1}{q_c}\). Further, those estimates are sharp, regardless of the geometry of \(M\).\N\NIn order to obtain improvements, one needs to take spectral projections \(\chi_I\) over intervals \(I=[\lambda,\lambda+\ell(\lambda)]\) of length depending on \(\lambda\).\N\NHere, arguments from micro-local analysis (Egorov's theorem and Ehrenfest time) invite to consider length of the form \(\ell(\lambda)=(\log\lambda)^{-1}\).\N\NThe first result of the paper is that, when the sectional curvatures are all \textit{non-positive}, then there is a logarithmic improvement: for \(2<q\leq q_c\) \N\[\N\|\chi_{[\lambda,\lambda+(\log\lambda)^{-1}]}f\|_{L^q(M)} \lesssim \left(\frac{\lambda}{\log\lambda}\right)^{\mu(q)}\|f\|_{L^2(M)},\quad\lambda>1.\N\]\NWhen the sectional curvatures are all \textit{negative}, then there is a logarithmic improvement is stronger: for \(2<q\leq q_c\) \N\[\N\|\chi_{[\lambda,\lambda+(\log\lambda)^{-1}]}f\|_{L^q(M)} \lesssim \frac{\lambda^{\mu(q)}}{\sqrt{\log(L^2(M)\bigr)\lambda}}\|f\|_{L^2(M)},\quad\lambda>1. \N\]\NThose bounds are also shown to be sharp. Note that they had been proven earlier by \textit{A. Hassell} and \textit{M. Tacy} [Forum Math. 27, No. 3, 1435--1451 (2015; Zbl 1410.35264)], in the case \(q>q_c\).\N\NAlso, the authors explain why the Knapp counter-examples imply that such a result is not valid in \(\mathbb{R}^n\). The authors than construct an analogue of Knapp's counter-example to show that the behavior of the \(L^2\to L^q\) norm of the spectral projections \(\chi_{[\lambda,\lambda+(\log\lambda)^{-1}]}\), in the range \(]2,q_c[\) characterize the sign of the curvature of compact manifold with constant sectional curvature. Their result is the following\N\NLet \(M\) be an \(n\)-dimensional compact connected manifold with constant sectional curvature \(K\). Let \(q\in]2,q_c]\). For \(\lambda>1\) let \(V_\lambda=\chi_{[\lambda,\lambda+(\log\lambda)^{-1}]} \bigl(L^2(M)\bigr)\) and \N\[\NS_\lambda=\sup\{\|f\|_{L^q(M)}\,:\ f\in V_\lambda,\ \|f\|_{L^2(M)}\}\N\]\Nthen\N\begin{itemize}\N\item[1.] \( S_\lambda=\Theta(\lambda^{\mu(q)}))\) if and only if \(K>0\).\N\item[2.] \( S_\lambda=\Theta((\lambda/\log\lambda)^{\mu(q)}))\) if and only if \(K=0\).\N\item[3.] \( S_\lambda=\Theta((\log\lambda)^{-1/2}\lambda^{\mu(q)}))\) if and only if \(K<0\).\N\end{itemize}\N\NRecall that \(f=\Theta(g)\) means that \(f=O(g)\) but not \(f=o(g)\).