Improved critical eigenfunction estimates on manifolds of nonpositive curvature

Abstract

We prove new improved endpoint, $L^{p_c}$, $p_c=\tfrac{2(n+1)}{n-1}$, estimates (the "kink point") for eigenfunctions on manifolds of nonpositive curvature. We do this by using energy and dispersive estimates for the wave equation as well as new improved $L^p$, $2<p< p_c$, bounds of Blair and the author \cite{BSTop}, \cite{BSK15} and the classical improved sup-norm estimates of B\'erard~\cite{Berard}. Our proof uses Bourgain's \cite{BKak} proof of weak-type estimates for the Stein-Tomas Fourier restriction theorem \cite{Tomas}--\cite{Tomas2} as a template to be able to obtain improved weak-type $L^{p_c}$ estimates under this geometric assumption. We can then use these estimates and the (local) improved Lorentz space estimates of Bak and Seeger~\cite{BakSeeg} (valid for all manifolds) to obtain our improved estimates for the critical space under the assumption of nonpositive sectional curvatures.