Poincaré series for non-Riemannian locally symmetric spaces (Q895542)

A smooth, nondegenerate, symmetric bilinear tensor \(g\) of signature \((p, q)\) is a pseudo-Riemannian metric on a manifold \(M\). The metric \(g\) induces a second-order differential operator \(\square_M=\text{div}\,\text{grad}\), called the Laplace-Beltrami operator. The discrete spectrum \(\text{Spec}_d(\square_M)\) of \(M\) is its set of eigenvalues corresponding to \(L^2\)-eigenfunctions, where \(L^2(M)\) is the Hilbert space of square-integrable functions on \(M\) with respect to the Radon measure induced by the pseudo-Riemannian structure. If \(G\) is a real reductive Lie group and \(H\) an open subgroup of the group of fixed points of \(G\) under some involutive automorphism \(\sigma\), then a homogeneous space \(X=G/H\) is a reductive symmetric space that naturally carries a pseudo-Riemannian metric induced by the Killing form of the Lie algebra \(\mathfrak{g}\) of \(G\) when \(G\) is semisimple, and therefore, \(X\) has a Laplacian \(\square_X\). A quotient \(X_\Gamma=\Gamma\backslash X\) of a reductive symmetric space \(X\) by a discrete subgroup \(\Gamma\) of \(G \) acting properly discontinuously and freely is called a locally symmetric space or a Clifford-Klein form of \(X\). Joint eigenfunctions on \(X_\Gamma\) are defined as generalized Poincaré series \(\varphi^\Gamma:\Gamma x\mapsto\sum\limits_{\gamma\in\Gamma}\varphi(\gamma\cdot x)\), where the \(\varphi\) are well-behaved joint eigenfunctions on \(X\). The convergence and nonvanishing of the series are nontrivial since the behavior of \(\varphi\) needs to be controlled in relation to the distribution of \(\Gamma\)-orbits in the non-Riemannian space \(X\). In [C. R., Math., Acad. Sci. Paris 349, No. 1--2, 29--33 (2011; Zbl 1208.22013)], the authors initiated the spectral analysis of pseudo-Riemannian locally symmetric spaces \(X_\Gamma\) by constructing joint \(L^2\)-eigenfunctions on \(X_\Gamma\) corresponding to \(\text{Spec}_d(X_\Gamma)\) and understanding the behavior of \(\text{Spec}_d(X_\Gamma)\) under small deformations of \(\Gamma\) inside \(G\). A small deformation is meant to be a homomorphism close enough to the natural inclusion in the compact-open topology on \(\text{Hom}(\Gamma,G)\). They proved that if \(\text{rank}G/H = \text{rank}K/K \cap H\), then the discrete spectrum \(\text{Spec}_d(X_\Gamma)\) on \(X_\Gamma\) is infinite for any standard compact Clifford-Klein form \(X_\Gamma\) of \(X\), and that there is an infinite subset of \(\text{Spec}_d(X_\Gamma)\) that is stable under small deformations of \(\Gamma\) in \(G\), where \(K=G^\sigma\) is the corresponding maximal compact subgroup of \(G\) for a certain Cartan involution \(\theta\) of \(G\) commuting with \(\sigma\). In this paper, the authors investigate the same problems as above under the assumptions that \(\text{rank}G/H = \text{rank}K/K \cap H\) and that \(X\) admits a maximal compact subsymmetric space of full rank with non-compact \(G\) and non-Riemannian \(X\). They prove that the Poincaré series they constructed still converge, and define nonzero \(L^2\)-functions, after any small deformation of \(\Gamma\) inside \(G\), for a large class of groups \(\Gamma\). Also, they show that the infinite set of eigenvalues they constructed is stable under small deformations. This contrasts with the classical setting where the nonzero discrete spectrum varies on the Teichmüller space of a compact Riemann surface. In particular, they show that the discrete spectrum of any compact anti-de Sitter \(3\)-manifold is infinite, and if \(M=\Gamma\backslash\text{Ad}S^3\) with \(-I\notin\Gamma\), then \(\text{Spec}_d(\square_M)\supset\{\ell(\ell-2);\;\ell_0\leq\ell\in\mathbb N\}\) for some integer \(\ell_0\). Moreover, this condition still holds, with the same \(\ell_0\), after any small deformation of the anti-de Sitter structure on \(M\).