Saddle points and overdetermined problems for the Helmholtz equation

In a seminal 1971 paper, James Serrin showed that the only open, smoothly bounded domain in ⁿ on which the positive Dirichlet eigenfunction of the Laplacian has constant (nonzero) normal derivative on the boundary, is then-dimensional ball. The positivity of the eigenfunction is crucial to his proof. To date it is an open conjecture that the same result is true for Dirichlet eigenvalues other than the least. We show that for simply connected, plane domains, the absence of saddle points is a condition sufficient to validate this conjecture. This condition is also sufficient to prove Schiffer's conjecture: the only simply connected planar domain, on the boundary of which a nonconstant Neumann eigenfunction of the Laplacian can take constant value, is the disc.     

On Neumann eigenfunctions in lip domains

A ``lip domain' is a planar set lying between graphs of two Lipschitz functions with constant 1. We show that the second Neumann eigenvalue is simple in every lip domain except the square. The corresponding eigenfunction attains its maximum and minimum at the boundary points at the extreme left and right. This settles the ``hot spots' conjecture for lip domains as well as two conjectures of Jerison and Nadirashvili. Our techniques are probabilistic in nature and may have independent interest.

     

The “hot spots” conjecture for the Sierpinski gasket

There are many works on the “hot spots” conjecture for domains in Euclidean space since the conjecture was posed by J. Rauch in 1974. In this paper, using spectral decimation, we prove that the conjecture holds on the Sierpinski gasket, i.e., every eigenfunction of the second-smallest eigenvalue of the Neumann Laplacian (introduced by J. Kigami) attains its maximum and minimum on the boundary.     

Hot spots conjecture for a class of acute triangles

We show that the hot spots conjecture of J. Rauch holds for acute triangles if one of the angles is not larger than \(\pi /6\). More precisely, we show that the second Neumann eigenfunction on those acute triangles has no maximum or minimum inside the domain. We first simplify the problem by showing that absence of critical points on two sides implies no critical points inside a triangle. This result applies to any acute triangle and might help prove the conjecture for arbitrary acute triangles. Then we show that there are no critical points on two sides assuming one small angle. We also establish simplicity for the smallest positive Neumann eigenvalue for all non-equilateral acute triangles. This result was already known for obtuse triangles, and it fails for the equilateral case.     

The ``hot spots' conjecture for domains with two axes of symmetry

Consider a Neumann eigenfunction with lowest nonzero eigenvalue of a convex planar domain with two axes of symmetry. We show that the maximum and minimum of the eigenfunction are achieved at points on the boundary only. We deduce J. Rauch's ``hot spots' conjecture: if the initial temperature distribution is not orthogonal to the first nonzero eigenspace, then the point at which the temperature achieves its maximum tends to the boundary. This was already proved by Bañuelos and Burdzy in the case in which the eigenspace is one dimensional. We introduce here a new technique based on deformations of the domain that applies to the case of multiple eigenvalues.

     

On the first eigenvalue of Finsler manifolds with nonnegative weighted Ricci curvature

We prove that for a compact Finsler manifold M with nonnegative weighted Ricci curvature,if its first closed(resp.Neumann)eigenvalue of Finsler-Laplacian attains the sharp lower bound,then M is isometric to a circle(resp.a segment).Moreover,a lower bound of the first eigenvalue of Finsler-Laplacian with Dirichlet boundary condition is also estimated.These generalize the corresponding results in recent literature.     

The effect of perturbations on the first eigenvalue of the p-LaplacianL'éffet des pérturbations sur la première valeur propre du p-Laplacien

Let $\text{Ω}$ be a domain with Lipschitzian boundary of a compact Riemannian manifold (M,g) and p>1. We prove that we can make the volume of M arbitrarily close to the volume of $\text{(Ω,g)}$ while the first eigenvalue of the p-Laplacian on M remains uniformly bounded from below in terms of the the first eigenvalue of the Neumann problem for the p-Laplacian on $\text{(Ω,g)}$. To cite this article: A.-M. Matei, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 335 (2002) 255–258.     

A toy Neumann analogue of the nodal line conjecture

We introduce an analogue of Payne’s nodal line conjecture, which asserts that the nodal (zero) set of any eigenfunction associated with the second eigenvalue of the Dirichlet Laplacian on a bounded planar domain should reach the boundary of the domain. The assertion here is that any eigenfunction associated with the first nontrivial eigenvalue of the Neumann Laplacian on a domain \(\Omega \) with rotational symmetry of order two (i.e. \(x\in \Omega \) iff \(-x\in \Omega \)) “should normally” be rotationally antisymmetric. We give both positive and negative results which highlight the heuristic similarity of this assertion to the nodal line conjecture, while demonstrating that the extra structure of the problem makes it easier to obtain stronger statements: it is true for all simply connected planar domains, while there is a counterexample domain homeomorphic to a disk with two holes.     

On an eigenvalue problem involving variable exponent growth conditions

We study the problem in Ω, u=0 on ∂Ω, where Ω is a bounded domain in R^N, is a continuous function and λ and ε are two positive constants. We prove that for any ε>0 each λ∈(0,λ₁) is an eigenvalue of the above problem, where λ₁ is the principal eigenvalue of the Laplace operator on Ω. Moreover, for each eigenvalue λ∈(0,λ₁) it corresponds a unique eigenfunction. The proofs will be based on the Banach fixed point theorem combined with adequate variational techniques.     

A dynamical systems approach to the Kadison-Singer problem

In these notes we develop a link between the Kadison-Singer problem and questions about certain dynamical systems. We conjecture that whether or not a given state has a unique extension is related to certain dynamical properties of the state. We prove that if any state corresponding to a minimal idempotent point extends uniquely to the von Neumann algebra of the group, then every state extends uniquely to the von Neumann algebra of the group. We prove that if any state arising in the Kadison-Singer problem has a unique extension, then the injective envelope of a C*-crossed product algebra associated with the state necessarily contains the full von Neumann algebra of the group. We prove that this latter property holds for states arising from rare ultrafilters and δ-stable ultrafilters, independent, of the group action and also for states corresponding to non-recurrent points in the corona of the group.     

Faber-Krahn Inequality for Anisotropic Eigenvalue Problems with Robin Boundary Conditions

In this paper we study the main properties of the first eigenvalue λ ₁(Ω) and its eigenfunctions of a class of highly nonlinear elliptic operators in a bounded Lipschitz domain Ω ? ? _n , assuming a Robin boundary condition. Moreover, we prove a Faber-Krahn inequality for λ ₁(Ω).     

A global Lipschitz continuity result for a domain-dependent Neumann eigenvalue problem for the Laplace operator

Let Ω be an open connected subset of Rⁿ of finite measure for which the Poincaré-Wirtinger inequality holds. We consider the Neumann eigenvalue problem for the Laplace operator in the open subset φ(Ω) of Rⁿ, where φ is a locally Lipschitz continuous homeomorphism of Ω onto φ(Ω). Then, we show Lipschitz-type inequalities for the reciprocals of the eigenvalues delivered by the Rayleigh quotient. Then, we further assume that the imbedding of the Sobolev space W^1,2(Ω) into the space L²(Ω) is compact, and we prove the same type of inequalities for the projections onto the eigenspaces upon variation of φ.     

Eigenvalue Distribution of Elliptic Operators of Second Order with Neumann Boundary Conditions in a Snowflake Domain

Spectral properties of strongly elliptic operators of second order on bounded snowflake domains without W¹₂–extension property are investigated. We prove that the operators have a pure point spectrum and the asymptotic eigenvalue distributions for the counting function N(λ) are of Weyl type. It is shown that the remainder estimate of N(λ) for Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions depends on the inner and outer Minkowski dimension of the boundary ∂Ω, respectively.     

Optimal Shape Problems for Eigenvalues

ABSTRACT

We consider the first Dirichlet eigenvalue for nonhomogeneous membranes. For given volume we want to find the domain which minimizes this eigenvalue. The problem is formulated as a variational free boundary problem. The optimal domain is characterized as the support of the first eigenfunction. We prove enough regularity for the eigenfunction to conclude that the optimal domain has finite parameter. Finally an overdetermined boundary value problem on the regular part of the free boundary is given.     

New extremal domains for the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian in flat tori

We prove the existence of nontrivial compact extremal domains for the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian in manifolds ${\mathbb{R}^{n}\times \mathbb{R}{/}T\, \mathbb{Z}}$ with flat metric, for some T > 0. These domains are close to the cylinder-type domain ${B_1 \times \mathbb{R}{/}T\, \mathbb{Z}}$ , where B ₁ is the unit ball in ${\mathbb{R}^{n}}$ , they are invariant by rotation with respect to the vertical axe, and are not invariant by vertical translations. Such domains can be extended by periodicity to nontrivial and noncompact domains in Euclidean spaces whose first eigenfunction of the Laplacian with 0 Dirichlet boundary condition has also constant Neumann data at the boundary.     

Smoothness of the trajectories of ideal fluid particles with Yudovich vorticities in a planar bounded domain

We consider the incompressible Euler equations in a (possibly multiply connected) bounded domain Ω of R², for flows with bounded vorticity, for which Yudovich (1963) proved in [29] global existence and uniqueness of the solution. We prove that if the boundary ∂Ω of the domain is C^∞ (respectively Gevrey of order M?1) then the trajectories of the fluid particles are C^∞ (respectively Gevrey of order M+2). Our results also cover the case of “slightly unbounded” vorticities for which Yudovich (1995) extended his analysis in [30]. Moreover if in addition the initial vorticity is Hölder continuous on a part of Ω then this Hölder regularity propagates smoothly along the flow lines. Finally we observe that if the vorticity is constant in a neighborhood of the boundary, the smoothness of the boundary is not necessary for these results to hold.     

Basis Property of the Eigenfunction System of the Gellerstedt Problem in the Elliptic Part of the Domain

The Gellerstedt eigenvalue problem with homogeneous boundary conditions on interior characteristics is studied. We prove that the eigenfunction system of this problem is a Riesz basis in the L₂ space in the elliptic domain.     

Variational reduction for Ginzburg-Landau vortices

Let Ω be a bounded domain with smooth boundary in R². We construct non-constant solutions to the complex-valued Ginzburg-Landau equation ε²Δu+(1−²|u|)u=0 in Ω, as ε→0, both under zero Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions. We reduce the problem of finding solutions having isolated zeros (vortices) with degrees ±1 to that of finding critical points of a small C¹-perturbation of the associated renormalized energy. This reduction yields general existence results for vortex solutions. In particular, for the Neumann problem, we find that if Ω is not simply connected, then for any k?1 a solution with exactly k vortices of degree one exists.     

Fourier transform, null variety, and Laplacian's eigenvalues

We consider a quantity κ(Ω)—the distance to the origin from the null variety of the Fourier transform of the characteristic function of Ω. We conjecture, firstly, that κ(Ω) is maximised, among all convex balanced domains Ω⊂Rd of a fixed volume, by a ball, and also that κ(Ω) is bounded above by the square root of the second Dirichlet eigenvalue of Ω. We prove some weaker versions of these conjectures in dimension two, as well as their validity for domains asymptotically close to a disk, and also discuss further links between κ(Ω) and the eigenvalues of the Laplacians.     

Propagation of boundary CR foliations and Morera type theorems for manifolds with attached analytic discs

We prove that homologically nontrivial generic smooth (2n−1)-parameter families of analytic discs in Cn, n?2, attached by their boundaries to a CR-manifold Ω, test CR-functions in the following sense: if a smooth function on Ω analytically extends into any analytic discs from the family, then the function satisfies tangential CR-equations on Ω. In particular, we give an answer (Theorem 1) to the following long standing open question, so called strip-problem, earlier solved only for special families (mainly for circles): given a smooth one-parameter family of Jordan curves in the plane and a function f admitting holomorphic extension inside each curve, must f be holomorphic on the union of the curves? We prove, for real-analytic functions and arbitrary generic real-analytic families of curves, that the answer is “yes,” if no point is surrounded by all curves from the family. The latter condition is essential. We generalize this result to characterization of complex curves in C² as real 2-manifolds admitting nontrivial families of attached analytic discs (Theorem 4). The main result implies fairly general Morera type characterization of CR-functions on hypersurfaces in C² in terms of holomorphic extensions into three-parameter families of attached analytic discs (Theorem 2). One of the applications is confirming, in real-analytic category, the Globevnik-Stout conjecture (Theorem 3) on boundary values of holomorphic functions. It is proved that a smooth function on the boundary of a smooth strictly convex domain in Cn extends holomorphically inside the domain if it extends holomorphically into complex lines tangent to a given strictly convex subdomain. The proofs are based on a universal approach, namely, on the reduction to a problem of propagation, from the boundary to the interior, of degeneracy of CR-foliations of solid torus type manifolds (Theorem 2.2).