Holomorphic extensions of Laplacians and their determinants (Q877730)

Let \(M\) be a compact manifold, let \(\Delta\) be the associated Laplace-Beltrami operator and let \[ \zeta_{\Delta}(s)=\sum_{\lambda\in\mathrm{Spec}(\Delta)\setminus\{0\}} \lambda^{-s} \] be the zeta-function of \(\Delta\). This sum is absolutely convergent for \(\mathrm{Re} s > \frac{\mathrm{dim}M}{2}\) and it has a meromorphic extension to the whole complex plane. Osgood, Philips and Sarnak defined the \textit{determinant} \(\mathrm{det}'(\Delta)\) by the formula \[ -\log \mathrm{det}'(\Delta)=\frac {d\zeta_{\Delta}(0)}{ds}. \] In the case where the manifold \(M\) is a compact orientable surface \(S=S_g\) of genus \(g\), the determinant \(\mathrm{det}'(\Delta)\) has been studied by Osgood, Philips and Sarnak as a function on the space of metrics on that surface. These authors showed that in the case where \(g>1\), the restriction of \(-\log \mathrm{det}'(\Delta)\) to a given conformal class of metrics attains a minimum at the unique hyperbolic metric on \(S\), and that it has no other critical points. This establishes the function \(-\log \mathrm{det}'(\Delta)\) as an important object of study in Teichmüller theory. Determinant functions defined on the Teichmüller space \(\mathcal{T}(S)\) were studied by Wolpert, Bismut and Bost, and by other authors. Now the Teichmüller space \(\mathcal{T}(S)\) sits as a totally real submanifold in quasi-Fuchsian space \(QF(S)\). In the paper under review, the author shows that the function \(-\log \mathrm{det}'(\Delta)\) on \(\mathcal{T}(S)\) has a unique holomorphic extension to \(QF(S)\). To achieve this, he introduces a family \(\{\Delta_{\mu,\nu}\}\) of elliptic second order differential operators on \(S\) which naturally extend the Laplace operators of hyperbolic metrics on \(S\). The family depends holomorphically on the parameters \((\mu,\nu)\), the parameter space being the space of pairs of Beltrami differentials on \(S\). The author studies the determinants of the family \(\{\Delta_{\mu,\nu}\}\) and he shows that these determinants realize the holomorphic extension of the determinant \(-\log \mathrm{det}'(\Delta)\).