Gaps in the differential forms spectrum on cyclic coverings

We are interested in the spectrum of the Hodge–de Rham operator on a -covering X over a compact manifold M of dimension n + 1. Let Σ be a hypersurface in M which does not disconnect M and such that M − Σ is a fundamental domain of the covering. If the cohomology group H ^n/2(Σ) is trivial, we can construct for each a metric g = g _N on M, such that the Hodge–de Rham operator on the covering (X, g) has at least N gaps in its (essential) spectrum. If , the same statement holds true for the Hodge–de Rham operators on p-forms provided .