Spectral determinants of the Bolza surface and the Klein quartic

Abstract

We obtain closed explicit formulas for the spectral determinants of the smooth hyperbolic Bolza surface and the Klein quartic. In each case, a multiplicative relation expresses the determinant of the surface in terms of determinants of singular quotient orbifolds of genera zero and one. The elliptic factors are evaluated by applying the singular Polyakov anomaly formula to explicit Belyi maps on CM elliptic curves of discriminants -8 and -7, while the genus-zero factors are evaluated by explicit determinant formulas for constant-curvature spheres with conical singularities. The same multiplicative relations hold fibrewise on the corresponding equisymmetric deformation strata and yield determinant and first-variation identities. We also prove that every compact quasiplatonic hyperbolic surface is a critical point of the spectral determinant on its Teichmüller space; in particular, this applies to the Bolza surface and the Klein quartic.