Let P be a self-adjoint elliptic operator of order m > 0 acting on the sections of a Hermitian vector bundle over a compact Riemannian manifold of dimension n. General arguments show that its zeta and eta functions may have poles only at points of the form [Formula: see text], where k ranges over all nonzero integers ≤ n. In this paper, we construct elementary and explicit examples of perturbations of P which make the zeta and eta functions become singular at all points at which they are allowed to have singularities. We proceed within three classes of operators: Dirac-type operators, self-adjoint first-order differential operators and self-adjoint elliptic pseudodifferential operators. As consequences, we obtain genericity results for the singularities of the zeta and eta functions in those settings. In particular, in the setting of Dirac-type operators we obtain a purely analytical proof of a well-known result of Branson–Gilkey [Residues of the eta function for an operator of Dirac type, J. Funct. Anal. 108(1) (1992) 47–87], which was obtained by invoking Riemannian invariant theory. As it turns out, the results of this paper contradict Theorem 6.3 of [R. Ponge, Spectral asymmetry, zeta functions and the noncommutative residue, Int. J. Math. 17 (2006) 1065–1090]. Corrections to that statement are given in this paper.
An equivariant noncommutative residue
