The Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds

Abstract

These are informal notes of talks I gave at the Instructional Conference on Spectral Theory and Geometry, International Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Edinburgh, March 29–April 9, 1998. The first three days featured three introductory mini-courses consisting of three lectures each: (1) E.B. Davies on Friedrichs extensions of densely defined symmetric operators, and max-min methods and their computational aspects, (2) F. Burstall on introductory Riemannian geometry, and (3) myself on the Laplacian on Riemannian manifolds.