English

Nodal intersections of random eigenfunctions against a segment on the 2-dimensional torus

Number Theory 2017-04-20 v2

Abstract

We consider random Gaussian eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on the standard torus, and investigate the number of nodal intersections against a line segment. The expected intersection number, against any smooth curve, is universally proportional to the length of the reference curve, times the wavenumber, independent of the geometry. We found an upper bound for the nodal intersections variance, depending on whether the slope of the straight line is rational or irrational. Our findings exhibit a close relation between this problem and the theory of lattice points on circles.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1603.09646,
  title  = {Nodal intersections of random eigenfunctions against a segment on the 2-dimensional torus},
  author = {Riccardo Walter Maffucci},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1603.09646},
  year   = {2017}
}

Comments

Minor revision of Section 5; added Keywords and MSC2010; updated references

R2 v1 2026-06-22T13:22:29.093Z