Laplace eigenfunctions on Riemannian symmetric spaces and Borel-Weil Theorem

Abstract: We indicate a geometric relation between Laplace-Beltrami spectra and eigenfunctions on compact Riemannian symmetric spaces and the Borel-Weil theory using ideas from symplectic geometry and geometric quantization. This is done by associating to each compact Riemannian symmetric space, via Marsden-Weinstein reduction, a generalized flag manifold which covers the space parametrizing all of its maximal totally geodesic tori. In the process we notice a direct relation between the Satake diagram of the symmetric space and the painted Dynkin diagram of its associated flag manifold. We consider in detail the examples of the classical simply-connected spaces of rank one and the space SU(3)/SO(3). In the second part of the paper we provide a construction of harmonic polynomials inducing Laplace-Beltrami eigenfunctions on the symmetric space from holomorphic sections of the associated line bundle on the generalized flag manifold. We show that in the examples we consider the construction provides all of the eigenfunctions.