A tower of Riemann surfaces whose Bergman kernels jump at the roof (Q710650)

Let \(H\) denote the upper half plane and \(\Gamma \) a Fuchsian group acting on \(H\). Assume that \((\Gamma_n)_n\) is sequence of subgroups of \(\Gamma\) such that {\parindent=7mm \begin{itemize}\item[(i)]\(\Gamma_1=\Gamma\) , \item[(ii)]\(\Gamma_n \supset \Gamma_{n+1}\), and \item[(iii)]\(\bigcap_n\Gamma_n= \{\text{Id}\}\). \end{itemize}} Let \(S_n:=H/\Gamma_n\) and \(\pi_n: H\to S_n\) denote the projection mapping. The question that is discussed in the present article is the following: Does it follow from these hypotheses that the following is true? {\parindent=7mm \begin{itemize}\item[(1)]\(\pi_n^*K_n\) tends to \(K_H\), where \(K_n\) denotes the Bergman kernel (on the diagonal) of \(S_n\), and \(K_H\) the Bergman kernel of \(H\) \item[(2)]\(\partial \bar \partial \log \pi_n^*K_n\) tends to \(\frac{dz \wedge d \bar z}{2(\text{Im} z)^2}\). \end{itemize}} By \textit{J. A. Rhodes} [Duke Math. J. 72, No. 3, 725--738 (1993; Zbl 0798.11018)] the following result was found: The answer to the above question is `yes' if one of the following conditions is fulfilled: {\parindent=7mm \begin{itemize}\item[(a)]Each \(\Gamma_n\) is normal in \(\Gamma\), \item[(b)]the smallest nonzero eigenvalue of the Laplace-Beltrami operator associated to the Poincaré metric of \(S_n\) is bounded away from zero, as \(n\) varies. \end{itemize}} The present article shows that (1) and (2) need not hold without conditions on the \(\Gamma_n\), because the author constructs an example of a tower \((S_n)_n \) of Riemann surfaces \(S_n\) of the form \(S_n= H/\Gamma_n\) such that the \(\Gamma_n\) fulfill (i) through (iii), but nevertheless (1) and (2) do not hold.