Covariance of error terms related to the Dirichlet eigenvalue problem

Abstract

We explore the covariance of error terms coming from Weyl's conjecture regarding the number of Dirichlet eigenvalues up to size X. We also consider this problem in short intervals, that is, the error term of the number of eigenvalues in the window [ X , X + S ] $[X, X+S]$ for some S ( X ) $S(X)$ . We look at these error terms for planar domains where the Dirichlet eigenvalues can be explicitly calculated. In these cases, the error term is closely related to the error term from the classical lattice points counting problem of expanding planar domains. We give a formula for the covariance of such error terms, for general planar domains. We also give a formula for the covariance of error terms in short intervals, for sufficiently large intervals. Going back to the Dirichlet eigenvalue problem, we give results regarding the covariance of the error terms in short intervals of “generic” rectangles. We also explore a specific example, namely we compute the covariance between the error terms of an equilateral triangle and various rectangles.