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Title: Hearing shapes of drums: Mathematical and physical aspects of isospectrality

Journal Article · · Reviews of Modern Physics
;  [1]
  1. Laboratoire de Physique Theorique (IRSAMC), Universite de Toulouse-UPS, F-31062 Toulouse (France)

In a celebrated paper ''Can one hear the shape of a drum?'' M. Kac [Am. Math. Monthly 73, 1 (1966)] asked his famous question about the existence of nonisometric billiards having the same spectrum of the Laplacian. This question was eventually answered positively in 1992 by the construction of noncongruent planar isospectral pairs. This review highlights mathematical and physical aspects of isospectrality.

OSTI ID:
22038523
Journal Information:
Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 82, Issue 3; Other Information: (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6861
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English