On the Dirichlet-to-Neumann conformal invariant of bounded planar domains

Abstract

Using an analogue of the Mandelstam-Giddings-Wolpert diagrams, we introduce a new canonical representative of the conformal class of a bounded domain of arbitrary connectivity in $\mathbb{C}$ as a flat conical surface with geodesic boundary (a "truncated light-cone diagram", simply LC-diagram in the sequel). The space of diagrams carries natural coordinates. We derive variational formulas for the determinant of the Dirichlet Laplacian on a LC-diagram with respect to these coordinates. Then, passing to the Schottky double of the LC-diagram, making use of the Burghelea-Friedlander-Kappeler formula and the known variational formulas for determinants of Laplacians on the moduli space of holomorphic differentials, we compute the Dirichlet-to-Neumann (DN) conformal invariant $\frac{{\rm det}'Λ}{|Γ|}$ (here $Λ$ is the DN operator on the boundary, $Γ$, of a multiply connected domain and $|Γ|$ is the length of the boundary). The resulting formula (which uses the periods of the Schottky double of the domain only) provides an elementary counterpart to the formulas of Guillarmou and Guillopé who had expressed the DN invariant through the Ruelle and Selberg zeta-functions. Our formula agrees with the recent result of Wentworth on the asymptotics of the DN invariant as all but one boundary components shrink; we have used this result to fix the undetermined constant of integration in our formula. As a corollary, we derive an explicit formula for the determinant of the Dirichlet Laplacian in a multiply connected domain.