On the spectrum of the Dirichlet Laplacian in a narrow strip

We consider the Dirichlet Laplacian Δ_∈ in a family of bounded domains {−a < x < b, 0 < y < εh(x)}. The main assumption is that x = 0 is the only point of global maximum of the positive, continuous function h(x). We find the two-term asymptotics in ε → 0 of the eigenvalues and the one-term asymptotics of the corresponding eigenfunctions. The asymptotic formulas obtained involve the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of an auxiliary ODE on ℝ that depends on the behavior of h(x) as x → 0. The proof is based on a detailed study of the resolvent of the operator Δ_∈.