Euler characteristic from the heat trace of a bordered surface ($[t^0]\mathrm{Tr}(e^{-tP})=\chi (M)/6$)

For a compact smooth Riemannian surface with smooth boundary and a pure Dirichlet boundary condition or pure Neumann boundary condition, the constant coefficient in the heat trace isThe equality is the Gauss-Bonnet theorem. Thus such isospectral manifolds have the same Euler characteristic. A simply connected compact connected bordered surface is a disk with $\chi =1$, whereas a nonorientable surface with $c\ge 1$ crosscaps and $b\ge 1$ boundary components has $\chi =2-c-b\le 0$. These cannot be isospectral in this setting. Corners and mixed boundary conditions contribute additional heat coefficients, so the smooth pure-boundary-condition hypothesis is essential.