2001/09/24 by Ivan Avramidi, Thomas Branson
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-th
published as J.Funct.Anal. 190 (2002) 292-337 · 37 pages, LaTeX
arxiv created 2001/09/24 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
We initiate a systematic study of natural differential operators in Riemannian geometry whose leading symbols are not of Laplace type. In particular, we define a discrete leading symbol for such operators which may be computed pointwise, or from spectral asymptotics. We indicate how this can be applied to the computation of another kind of spectral asymptotics, namely asymptotic expansions of fundamental solutions, and to the computation of conformally covariant operators.