Regularized determinants of the Laplacian for cofinite Kleinian groups with finite-dimensional unitary representations (Q930567)

Regularized determinants of the Laplacian on surfaces or 3-dimensional hyperbolic manifolds with finite volume and relations to the Selberg zeta-function have been studied in different situations. In the present paper the author investigates a ``3-dimensional vector case'' corresponding to cofinite Kleinian groups and finite-dimensional unitary representations. A discrete subgroup \(\Gamma\) of \(SL(2,\mathbb{C})\slash \{ \pm I\}\) is called a \textit{Kleinian group} and each of its elements can be identified with a Möbius transformation acting on the hyperbolic three space \(\mathbb{H}^3\) and its boundary. In case \(\Gamma\) admits a fundamental domain \(\mathcal{F} \subset \mathbb{H}^3\) of finite hyperbolic volume we call it \textit{cofinite}. Let \(V\) be a finite-dimensional complex vector space with inner-product and \(\chi\) be a unitary representation of the cofinite Kleinian group \(\Gamma\) in \(V\). Corresponding to these data the author defines a Hilbert-space \(H(\Gamma, \chi)\) of \(\chi\)-automorphic functions on \(\mathbb{H}^3\) having values in \(V\). Acting on \(H(\Gamma, \chi)\) there is the corresponding self-adjoint Laplace-Beltrami operator \(\Delta\). Assuming that \(\Gamma\) has one cusp at infinity, the regularized relative determinant of \(\Delta\) (in the sense of W. Müller) is calculated in the present paper by decomposing the fundamental domain in a compact set and a non-compact cusp sector. Moreover, an interesting relation to the Selberg zeta-function is explained. The results are specialized to torsion-free Kleinian groups and regular characters or the case where \(\Gamma\) admits a compact fundamental domain, i.e. it is a cocompact Kleinian group. As a crucial ingredient in the proof, the trace of the regularized heat kernel is obtained explicitly together with its asymptotic expansion as time tends to zero and infinity, respectively. Such formulas lead to an evaluation of the relative zeta-function.