Asymptotic Behavior of Heat Kernels on Spheres of Large Dimensions

Forn2, let (μ^x_τ, n)_τ0be the distributions of the Brownian motion on the unit sphereSⁿⁿ⁺¹starting in some pointxSⁿ. This paper supplements results of Saloff-Coste concerning the rate of convergence ofμ^x_τ, nto the uniform distributionU_nonSⁿforτ→∞ depending on the dimensionn. We show that,[formula]forτ_n:=(ln n+2s)/(2n), where erf denotes the error function. Our proof depends on approximations of the measuresμ^x_τ, nby measures which are known explicitly via Poisson kernels onSⁿ, and which tend, after suitable projections and dilatations, to normal distributions on forn→∞. The above result as well as some further related limit results will be derived in this paper in the slightly more general context of Jacobi-type hypergroups.