Wave propagation on Euclidean surfaces with conical singularities. I: Geometric diffraction

We investigate the singularities of the trace of the half-wave group, $\mathrm{Tr} \, e^{-it\sqrt\Delta}$, on Euclidean surfaces with conical singularities $(X,g)$. We compute the leading-order singularity associated to periodic orbits with successive degenerate diffractions. This result extends the previous work of the third author \cite{Hil} and the two-dimensional case of the work of the first author and Wunsch \cite{ForWun} as well as the seminal result of Duistermaat and Guillemin \cite{DuiGui} in the smooth setting. As an intermediate step, we identify the wave propagators on $X$ as singular Fourier integral operators associated to intersecting Lagrangian submanifolds, originally developed by Melrose and Uhlmann \cite{MelUhl}.