Separation of Eigenvalues of the Wave Equation for the Unit Ball in RN

It is shown that π is the infinium gap between the consecutive square roots of the eigenvalues of the wave equation in a hypespherical domain for both the Neumann (free) and the full range of mixed (elastic) homogeneous boundary conditions. Previous literature contains the same information apparently only for the Dirichlet (fixed) boundary condition. These square roots of the eigenvalues are the zeros of solutions of a differential equation in Bessel functions (first kind) and their first derivatives. The infinium gap is uniform for Bessel functions of orders x ≥ ½ (as well as for x = 0). The intervals between the roots are actually monotone decreasing in length. These results are obtained by interlacing zeros of Bessel and associated functions and comparing their relative displacements with oscillation theory. If W_l denotes the lth positive root for some fixed order x, the minimum gap property assures that {exp(±iw_lt|l = 1, 2,...} form a Riesz basis in L²(0, τ) for τ > 2. This has application to the problem of controlling solutions of the wave equation by controlling the boundary values.