Boundary volume and length spectra of Riemannian manifolds: What the middle degree Hodge spectrum doesn't reveal

Abstract

Let $M$ be a $2m$-dimensional compact Riemannian manifold. We show that the spectrum of the Hodge Laplacian acting on $m$-forms does not determine whether the manifold has boundary, nor does it determine the lengths of the closed geodesics. Among the many examples are a projective space and a hemisphere that have the same Hodge spectrum on 1-forms, and hyperbolic surfaces, mutually isospectral on 1-forms, with different injectivity radii. The Hodge $m$-spectrum also does not distinguish orbifolds from manifolds.