Geodesic Distance Riesz Energy on Projective Spaces

Abstract

We study probability measures that minimize the Riesz energy with respect to the geodesic distance $\vartheta (x,y)$ on projective spaces $\mathbb{FP}^d$ (such energies arise from the 1959 conjecture of Fejes Tóth about sums of non-obtuse angles), i.e. the integral \begin{equation} \frac{1}{s} \int_{\mathbb{FP}^d} \int_{\mathbb{FP}^d} \big( \vartheta (x,y) \big)^{-s} dμ(x) dμ(y) \,\,\, \text{ for } \,\,\, s<d \end{equation} and find ranges of the parameter $s$ for which the energy is minimized by the uniform measure $σ$ on $\mathbb{FP}^d$. To this end, we use various methods of harmonic analysis, such as Cesàro averages of Jacobi expansions and $A_1$ inequalities, and establish a rather general theorem guaranteeing that certain energies with singular kernels are minimized by $σ$. In addition, we obtain further results and present numerical evidence, which uncover a peculiar effect that minimizers this energy undergo numerous phase transitions, in sharp contrast with many analogous known examples (even the seemingly similar geodesic Riesz energy on the sphere), which usually have only one transition (between uniform and discrete minimizers).