SINGULAR BEHAVIOR OF THE S

1
-INVARIANT TRACE
FUNCTIONAL
MARTIN ENGMAN AND JOSELL RAM

IREZ PAZ
Abstract. On the space M
inv
of smooth S
1
invariant metrics of area 4 on
S
2
we consider the functional tr
0
: M
inv
R given by tr
0
(g)
P
1/
j
0
in
which
j
0
is the j-th eigenvalue of the 1-form laplacian acting on S
1
invariant
1-forms for the metric g. We construct examples of sequences of metrics which
converge pointwise to the standard metric on S
2
but whose trace functional
does not tend to that of the standard sphere. An easy modication of these
examples produces a sequence of homothetic metrics which collapse to a point
but leave a remnant spectrum in the limit.
1. Introduction
The trace of the S
1
-invariant Greens operator for S
1
-invariant metrics on S
2
can be written in terms of a simple integral of a function constructed from the
single function which determines the metric. Using the resulting formula it has
been shown that arbitrarily large S
1
-invariant traces can be achieved on the space
of metrics of xed area (see [2]). In this paper we take this idea a step further
and show that some of the classic examples of pointwise convergent, non-uniformly
convergent sequences of functions provide examples of sequences of metrics which
converge, pointwise, to the standard sphere, or to a point, but whose traces converge
to any real number. In other words the S
1
-invariant trace functional exhibits an
essential singularity at the constant curvature metric or leaves a remnant spectrum
after evaporation.
2. Metrics and spectra of S
1
-invariant surfaces
Let M
inv
denote the collection of all S
1
invariant metrics on S
2
of area 4. This
collection contains the classical surfaces of revolution and is, therefore, sometimes
referred to as a collection of abstract surfaces of revolution. Any metric g M
inv
can be written, locally, in the form
(2.1) g =
1
f(x)
dx dx +f(x)d d
where (x, ) (1, 1) [0, 2) and in which f is a function satisfying
(2.2) f(1) = 0 = f(1)
and
(2.3) f

(1) = 2 = f

(1).
2000 Mathematics Subject Classication. Primary 58J50, 58J53, 53C20; Secondary 35P15.
Partially supported by the NSF Grant: AGMUS Institute of Mathematics at UMET .
1
2 MARTIN ENGMAN AND JOSELL RAM

IREZ PAZ
Here, (x, ) are called action-angle coordinates and f(x) a momentum prole. There
is, obviously, a one-to-one correspondence between abstract surfaces of revolution
and the momentum proles, f(x) (see [6]).
In this form, it is easy to see that the Gauss curvature of this metric is given by
K(x) = (1/2)f

(x) and the canonical (i.e. constant curvature) metric is obtained

by taking f(x) = 1 x
2
and is denoted by can.
We now review the pertinent properties of the spectra. The interested reader
may consult [2] for further details.
By Hodge duality, the spectrum of one forms on S
2
corresponds exactly to the
non-zero spectrum of the Laplacian acting on functions. It suces, therefore, to
consider the scalar Laplacian and simply throw out the zero eigenvalue. Let
denote the scalar Laplacian on (M, g), where g M
inv
is given by (2.1) and let
(g) be any eigenvalue of for the metric g. To avoid clutter we will, henceforth,
suppress the dependence of on the metric and simply write = (g). We will
use the symbols E

and dimE

to denote the eigenspace for and its multiplicity

respectively. In this paper the symbol
m
will always mean the m-th distinct
eigenvalue. We adopt the convention
0
= 0. Since S
1
(parametrized here by
0 < 2) acts on (M, g) by isometries and because dimE
m
2m + 1 (see [3]
for the proof), the orthogonal decomposition of E
m
has the special form
E
m
=
k=m

k=m
e
ik
W
k
in which W
k
(= W
k
) is the eigenspace (it might contain only 0) of the ordinary
dierential operator
L
k
=
d
dx
_
f(x)
d
dx
_
+
k
2
f(x)
with suitable boundary conditions. It should be observed that dimW
k
1, a value
of zero for this dimension occuring when
m
SpecL
k
.
It is easy to see that Spec() =

kZ
SpecL
k
and consequently the non-zero
part of the spectrum of can be studied via the spectra SpecL
k
= {0 <
1
k
<

2
k
< <
j
k
< }k Z. The eigenvalues
j
0
in the case k = 0 above are
called the S
1
invariant eigenvalues since their eigenfunctions are invariant under
the action of the S
1
isometry group. If k = 0 the eigenvalues are called k equivariant
or simply of type k = 0. Each L
k
has a Greens operator,
k
: (H
0
(M))

L
2
(M),
whose spectrum is {1/
j
k
}

j=1
, and whose trace is dened by, tr
k
(g)

1/
j
k
.
One can prove tr
k
(g) =
1
|k|
for k N and any metric g M
inv
, but here we
are interested in the k = 0 case which is given by
(2.4) tr
0
(g) =
1
2
_
1
1
1 x
2
f(x)
dx,
It is obvious that for the constant curvature (g = can) case, tr
0
(can) = 1
3. The examples
In this section we construct a multiple parameter sequence, {g
n,h,
}

n=0
, of met-
rics
SINGULAR TRACE 3
(3.1) g
n,h,
=
1
f
n,h,
(x)
dx dx +f
n,h,
(x)d d
in which
(3.2) f
n,h,
(x) =
1 x
2
1 +hn

_
x+1
2
_
_
1
_
x+1
2
_
2
_
n
n N where R and h R, with h 0. Each of these metrics is clearly of the
form (2.1) and it is easy to see that each f
n,h,
satises the conditions (2.2) and
(2.3) verifying that the metrics are, indeed, metrics in M
inv
with area 4.
The Gaussian curvatures of these metrics are given by
(3.3)
K
n,h,
(x) =
_
_
1+hn

(
x + 1
2
)
_
1(
x + 1
2
)
2
_
n

_
1+hn

_
1(
x + 1
2
)
2
_
n2
_
(
x + 1
2
)

_
1 (
x + 1
2
)
2
_
2
n(
x + 1
2
)
2
(
1 x
2
)
_
3 (2n + 1)(
x + 1
2
)
2
_
x
_
1 (
x + 1
2
)
2
_

_
1(2n+1)(
x + 1
2
)
2
_
_
+
x
2
1
4
_
hn

_
1 (
x + 1
2
)
2
_
n1
_
1 (2n + 1)(
x + 1
2
)
2
_
_
2_

_
1 +hn

(
x + 1
2
)
_
1 (
x + 1
2
)
2
_
n
_
3
.
It is natural to dene convergence in M
inv
as pointwise convergence of the
corresponding sequences of momentum proles dened on [1, 1] in which case
lim
n
g
n,h,
= can, h R.
But also
(3.4) tr
0
(g
n,h,
) = 1 +
hn

2(n + 1)
and as a result:
Proposition 3.1. With the notations as above:
lim
n
tr
0
(g
n,h,
) =
_
_
_
1 if < 1
1 +
h
2
if = 1
if > 1
.

One can also study a sequence {g

n,h,,
}

n=0
of homotheties of these metrics:
g
n,h,,
=
1
n

g
n,h,
for > 0 and > 0, with areas A
n
=
4
n

, curvatures
K
n,h,,
= n

K
n,h,
, and traces tr
0
(g
n,h,,
) =
1
n

tr
0
(g
n,h,
). Although the
sequence {g
n,h,,
}

n=0
collapses to the area 0 metric in the limit, the S
1
invariant
traces exhibit the following anomalous behavior.
Proposition 3.2. With the notations as above:
4 MARTIN ENGMAN AND JOSELL RAM

IREZ PAZ
lim
n
tr
0
(g
n,h,,
) =
_
_
_
0 if < 1
h
2
if = 1
if > 1
.

It would appear that, although a sequence of Riemannanian manifolds might

collapse to a point, there can be a remnant spectrum in the cases 1
above. It should be noted that for both of the sequences of metrics, {g
n,h,,
}

n=0
and {g
n,h,,
}

n=0
the sequences of curvatures are not bounded since, for example at
x = 1, K
n,h,
(1) = 1 +hn

and K
n,h,,
(1) = n

(1 +hn

) so these sequences
are neither converging nor collapsing in the sense of Cheeger-Gromov theory (see,
for example, [1]).
References
[1] Anderson, M., Cheeger-Gromov Theory and Applications in General Relativity, arXiv:gr-
qc/0208079v2.
[2] Engman, M., Trace Formulae for S
1
invariant Greens Operators on S
2
, manuscripta math.
93, (1997), 357-368.
[3] Engman, M., Sharp bounds for eigenvalues and multiplicities on surfaces of revolution, Pacic
J. Math. Vol. 186, No. 1, 1998, 29-37.
[4] Engman, M., A Note on Isometric Embeddings of Surfaces of Revolution, Amer. Math.
Monthly 111 (2004), 251-255.
[5] Fukaya, K. Collapsing of Riemannian manifolds and eigenvalues of Laplace operator, Invent.
math 87, 517-547 (1987).
[6] Hwang, A. A symplectic look at surfaces of revolution, lEnseignement Mathematique 49
(2003), 157-172.
Departamento de Ciencias y Tecnologa, Universidad Metropolitana, San Juan, PR
00928
E-mail address: um mengman@suagm.edu