Department of Mathematics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269
Abstract:
We introduce a new type of coupling of reflecting Brownian motions in smooth planar domains, called scaling coupling. We apply this to obtain monotonicity properties of antisymmetric second Neumann eigenfunctions of convex planar domains with one line of symmetry. In particular, this gives the proof of the hot spots conjecture for some known types of domains and some new ones.