Isospectral deformations of metrics on spheres

Abstract

We construct non-trivial continuous isospectral deformations of Riemannian metrics on the ball and on the sphere in $\R^n$ for every $n\geq 9$. The metrics on the sphere can be chosen arbitrarily close to the round metric; in particular, they can be chosen to be positively curved. The metrics on the ball are both Dirichlet and Neumann isospectral and can be chosen arbitrarily close to the flat metric.