Variation of the Nazarov-Sodin constant for random plane waves and arithmetic random waves

Abstract

This is a manuscript containing the full proofs of results announced in [KW], together with some recent updates. We prove that the Nazarov-Sodin constant, which up to a natural scaling gives the leading order growth for the expected number of nodal components of a random Gaussian field, genuinely depends on the field. We then infer the same for "arithmetic random waves", i.e. random toral Laplace eigenfunctions.

27 pages, 6 figures. To appear in Advances in Mathematics