Representation equivalent Bieberbach groups and strongly isospectral flat manifolds

Abstract

Let $\Gamma_1$ and $\Gamma_2$ be Bieberbach groups contained in the full isometry group $G$ of $\mathbb{R}^n$. We prove that if the compact flat manifolds $\Gamma_1\backslash\mathbb{R}^n$ and $\Gamma_2\backslash\mathbb{R}^n$ are strongly isospectral then the Bieberbach groups $\Gamma_1$ and $\Gamma_2$ are representation equivalent, that is, the right regular representations $L^2(\Gamma_1\backslash G)$ and $L^2(\Gamma_2\backslash G)$ are unitarily equivalent.