Triangulations of singular constant curvature spheres via Belyi functions and determinants of Laplacians

Abstract

We study the zeta-regularized spectral determinant of the Friedrichs Laplacians on the singular spheres obtained by cutting and glueing copies of constant curvature (hyperbolic, spherical, or flat) double triangle. The determinant is explicitly expressed in terms of the corresponding Belyi functions and the determinant of the Friedrichs Laplacian on the double triangle. The latter determinant was found in a closed explicit form in [V. Kalvin, Calc. Var. 62 (2023), Paper 59, arXiv:2112.02771]. In examples we consider the cyclic, dihedral, tetrahedral, octahedral, and icosahedral triangulations, and find the determinant for the corresponding spherical, Euclidean, and hyperbolic Platonic surfaces. These surfaces correspond to stationary points of the determinant.