Direction distribution for nodal components of random band-limited functions on surfaces

Abstract

Let $(M,g)$ be a smooth compact Riemannian surface with no boundary. Given a smooth vector field $V$ with finitely many zeroes on $M$, we study the distribution of the number of tangencies to $V$ of the nodal components of random band-limited functions. It is determined that in the high-energy limit, these obey a universal deterministic law, independent of the surface $M$ and the vector field $V$, that is supported precisely on the even integers $2 \mathbb{Z}_{> 0}$.