We give an overview of results on shape optimization for low eigenvalues of the Laplacian on bounded planar domains with Neumann and Steklov boundary conditions. These results share a common feature: they are proved using methods of complex analysis. In particular, we present modernized proofs of the classical inequalities due to Szego and Weinstock for the first nonzero Neumann and Steklov eigenvalues. We also extend the inequality for the second nonzero Neumann eigenvalue, obtained recently by Nadirashvili and the authors, to non-homogeneous membranes with log-subharmonic densities. In the homogeneous case, we show that this inequality is strict, which implies that the maximum of the second nonzero Neumann eigenvalue is not attained in the class of simply-connected membranes of a given mass. The same is true for the second nonzero Steklov eigenvalue, as follows from our results on the Hersch-Payne-Schiffer inequalities.
The second eigenvalue of the Robin Laplacian is shown to be maximal for the ball among domains of fixed volume, for negative values of the Robin parameter $α$ in the regime connecting the first nontrivial Neumann and Steklov eigenvalues, and even somewhat beyond the Steklov regime. The result is close to optimal, since the ball is not maximal when $α$ is sufficiently large negative, and the problem admits no maximiser when $α$ is positive.
We study a new link between the Steklov and Neumann eigenvalues of domains in Euclidean space. This is obtained through an homogenisation limit of the Steklov problem on a periodically perforated domain, converging to a family of eigenvalue problems with dynamical boundary conditions. For this problem, the spectral parameter appears both in the interior of the domain and on its boundary. This intermediary problem interpolates between Steklov and Neumann eigenvalues of the domain. As a corollary, we recover some isoperimetric type bounds for Neumann eigenvalues from known isoperimetric bounds f…
We discuss isoperimetric inequalities for the magnetic Laplacian on bounded domains of $\mathbb R^2$ endowed with an Aharonov-Bohm potential. When the flux of the potential around the pole is not an integer, the lowest eigenvalue for the Neumann and the Steklov problems is positive. We establish isoperimetric inequalitites for the lowest eigenvalue in the spirit of the classical inequalities of Szegö-Weinberger, Brock and Weinstock, the model domain being a disk with the pole at its center. We consider more generally domains in the plane endowed with a rotationally invariant metric, which incl…
We extend some classical inequalities between the Dirichlet and Neumann eigenvalues of the Laplacian to the context of mixed Steklov--Dirichlet and Steklov--Neumann eigenvalue problems. The latter one is also known as the sloshing problem, and has been actively studied for more than a century due to its importance in hydrodynamics. The main results of the paper are applied to obtain certain geometric information about nodal sets of sloshing eigenfunctions. The key ideas of the proofs include domain monotonicity for eigenvalues of mixed Steklov problems, as well as an adaptation of Filonov's me…
We consider Steklov eigenvalues of three-dimensional, nearly-spherical domains. In previous work, we have shown that the Steklov eigenvalues are analytic functions of the domain perturbation parameter. Here, we compute the first-order term of the asymptotic expansion, which can explicitly be written in terms of the Wigner 3-jsymbols. We analyze the asymptotic expansion and prove the isoperimetric result that, if l is a square integer, the volume-normalized l-th Steklov eigenvalue is stationary for a ball.
Let $(Ω,g)$ be a compact, real-analytic Riemannian manifold with real-analytic boundary $\partial Ω.$ The harmonic extensions of the boundary Dirchlet-to-Neumann eigenfunctions are called Steklov eigenfunctions. We show that the Steklov eigenfuntions decay exponentially into the interior in terms of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann eigenvalues and give a sharp rate of decay to first order at the boundary. The proof uses the Poisson representation for the Steklov eigenfunctions combined with sharp $h$-microlocal concentration estimates for the boundary Dirichlet-to-Neumann eigenfunctions near the cosph…
We consider the Steklov eigenvalues of the Laplace operator as limiting Neumann eigenvalues in a problem of boundary mass concentration. We discuss the asymptotic behavior of the Neumann eigenvalues in a ball and we deduce that the Steklov eigenvalues minimize the Neumann eigenvalues. Moreover, we study the dependence of the eigenvalues of the Steklov problem upon perturbation of the mass density and show that the Steklov eigenvalues violates a maximum principle in spectral optimization problems.
The second eigenvalue of the Robin Laplacian is shown to be maximal for the disk among simply-connected planar domains of fixed area when the Robin parameter is scaled by perimeter in the form $α/L(Ω)$, and $α$ lies between $-2π$ and $2π$. Corollaries include Szegő's sharp upper bound on the second eigenvalue of the Neumann Laplacian under area normalization, and Weinstock's inequality for the first nonzero Steklov eigenvalue for simply-connected domains of given perimeter. The first Robin eigenvalue is maximal, under the same conditions, for the degenerate rectangle. When area normalization o…
Recently, D. Bucur and M. Nahon used boundary homogenisation to show the remarkable flexibility of Steklov eigenvalues of planar domains. In the present paper we extend their result to higher dimensions and to arbitrary manifolds with boundary, even though in those cases the boundary does not generally exhibit any periodic structure. Our arguments use framework of variational eigenvalues and provides a different proof of the original results. Furthermore, we present an application of this flexibility to the optimisation of Steklov eigenvalues under perimeter constraint. It is proved that the b…
We obtain asymptotic formulae for the Steklov eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of curvilinear polygons in terms of their side lengths and angles. These formulae are quite precise: the errors tend to zero as the spectral parameter tends to infinity. The Steklov problem on planar domains with corners is closely linked to the classical sloshing and sloping beach problems in hydrodynamics; as we show it is also related to quantum graphs. Somewhat surprisingly, the arithmetic properties of the angles of a curvilinear polygon have a significant effect on the boundary behaviour of the Steklov eigenfunc…
We investigate isoperimetric upper bounds for sums of consecutive Steklov eigenvalues of planar domains. The normalization involves the perimeter and scale-invariant geometric factors which measure deviation of the domain from roundness. We prove sharp upper bounds for both starlike and simply connected domains, for a large collection of spectral functionals including partial sums of the zeta function and heat trace. The proofs rely on a special class of quasiconformal mappings.
We consider a variant of the classic Steklov eigenvalue problem, which arises in the study of the best trace constant for functions in Sobolev space. We prove that the elementary symmetric functions of the eigenvalues depend real-analytically upon variation of the underlying domain and we compute the corresponding Hadamard-type formulas for the shape derivatives. We also consider isovolumetric and isoperimetric domain perturbations and we characterize the corresponding critical domains in terms of appropriate overdetermined systems. Finally, we prove that balls are critical domains for the ele…
We consider the Steklov eigenvalues of the Laplace operator as limiting Neumann eigenvalues in a problem of mass concentration at the boundary of a ball. We discuss the asymptotic behavior of the Neumann eigenvalues and find explicit formulas for their derivatives at the limiting problem. We deduce that the Neumann eigenvalues have a monotone behavior in the limit and that Steklov eigenvalues locally minimize the Neumann eigenvalues.
In this paper, we study the upper bounds for discrete Steklov eigenvalues on trees via geometric quantities. For a finite tree, we prove sharp upper bounds for the first nonzero Steklov eigenvalue by the reciprocal of the size of the boundary and the diameter respectively. We also prove similar estimates for higher order Steklov eigenvalues.
We obtain a complete asymptotic expansion for the eigenvalues of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann maps associated with Schrödinger operators on compact Riemannian surfaces with boundary. For the zero potential, we recover the well-known spectral asymptotics for the Steklov problem. For nonzero potentials, we obtain new geometric invariants determined by the spectrum of what we call the parametric Steklov problem. In particular, for constant potentials parametric Steklov problem, the total geodesic curvature on each connected component of the boundary is a spectral invariant. Under the constant curvatu…
We show rigidity of the first conformal Steklov eigenvalue on annuli and Möbius bands. The proof relies, among others, on uniqueness results due to Fraser--Schoen, a compactness theorem of the second named author, and recent work of the authors on asymptotic control of Steklov eigenvalues in glueing constructions.
In this note we present upper bounds for the variational eigenvalues of the Steklov $p$-Laplacian on domains of $\mathbb R^n$, $n\geq 2$. We show that for $1<p\leq n$ the variational eigenvalues $σ_{p,k}$ are bounded above in terms of $k,p,n$ and $|\partialΩ|$ only. In the case $p>n$ upper bounds depend on a geometric constant $D(Ω)$, the $(n-1)$-distortion of $Ω$ which quantifies the concentration of the boundary measure. We prove that the presence of this constant is necessary in the upper estimates for $p>n$ and that the corresponding inequality is sharp, providing examples of domains with …
The paper is concerned with the Steklov eigenvalue problem on cuboids of arbitrary dimension. We prove a two-term asymptotic formula for the counting function of Steklov eigenvalues on cuboids in dimension d greater or equal to 3. Apart from the standard Weyl term, we calculate explicitly the second term in the asymptotics, capturing the contribution of the (d-2)-dimensional facets of a cuboid. Our approach is based on lattice counting techniques. While this strategy is similar to the one used for the Dirichlet Laplacian, the Steklov case carries additional complications. In particular, it is …
We discuss a Steklov-type problem for Maxwell's equations which is related to an interior Calderón operator and an appropriate Dirichlet-to-Neumann type map. The corresponding Neumann-to-Dirichlet map turns out to be compact and this provides a Fourier basis of Steklov eigenfunctions for the associated energy spaces. With an approach similar to that developed by Auchmuty for the Laplace operator, we provide natural spectral representations for the appropriate trace spaces, for the Calderón operator itself and for the solutions of the corresponding boundary value problems subject to electric or…
In recent decades qualitative inverse scattering methods with eigenvalues as target signatures received much attention. To understand those methods a knowledge on the properties of the related eigenvalue problems is essential. However, even the existence of eigenvalues for such (nonselfadjoint) problems is a challenging question and existing results for absorbing media are usually established under unrealistic assumptions or a smoothing of the eigenvalue problem. We present a technique to prove the existence of infinitely many eigenvalues for such problems under realistic assumptions. In parti…
Let $Ω$ be a bounded domain with $C^2$-smooth boundary in an $n$-dimensional oriented Riemannian manifold. It is well-known that for the bi-harmonic equation $Δ^2 u=0$ in $Ω$ with the $0$-Dirichlet boundary condition, there exists an infinite set $\{u_k\}$ of biharmonic functions in $Ω$ with positive eigenvalues $\{λ_k\}$ satisfying $Δu_k+ λ_k \varrho \frac{\partial u_k}{\partial ν}=0$ on the boundary $\partial Ω$. In this paper, by a new method we establish the Weyl-type asymptotic formula for the counting function of the biharmonic Stekloff eigenvalues $λ_k$.
We introduce the biharmonic Steklov problem on differential forms by considering suitable boundary conditions. We characterize its smallest eigenvalue and prove elementary properties of the spectrum. We obtain various estimates for the first eigenvalue, some of which involve eigenvalues of other problems such as the Dirichlet, Neumann, Robin and Steklov ones. Independently, new inequalities relating the eigenvalues of the latter problems are proved.
In this paper, we obtain a comparison of Steklov eigenvalues and Laplacian eigenvalues on graphs and discuss its rigidity. As applications of the comparison of eigenvalues, we obtain Lichnerowicz-type estimates and some combinatorial estimates for Steklov eigenvalues on graphs.
We present upper and lower bounds for Steklov eigenvalues for domains in $\mathbb{R}^{N+1}$ with $C^2$ boundary compatible with the Weyl asymptotics. In particular, we obtain sharp upper bounds on Riesz-means and the trace of corresponding Steklov heat kernel. The key result is a comparison of Steklov eigenvalues and Laplacian eigenvalues on the boundary of the domain by applying Pohozaev-type identities on an appropriate tubular neigborhood of the boundary and the min-max principle. Asymptotically sharp bounds then follow from bounds for Riesz-means of Laplacian eigenvalues.
This is a continuation of our previous work arXiv:1601.05617 on trace and inverse trace of Steklov eigenvalues. More new inequalities for the trace and inverse trace of Steklov eigenvalues are obtained.
The Steklov problem is an eigenvalue problem with the spectral parameter in the boundary conditions, which has various applications. Its spectrum coincides with that of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator. Over the past years, there has been a growing interest in the Steklov problem from the viewpoint of spectral geometry. While this problem shares some common properties with its more familiar Dirichlet and Neumann cousins, its eigenvalues and eigenfunctions have a number of distinctive geometric features, which makes the subject especially appealing. In this survey we discuss some recent advanc…
We associate a sequence of variational eigenvalues to any Radon measure on a compact Riemannian manifold. For particular choices of measures, we recover the Laplace, Steklov and other classical eigenvalue problems. In the first part of the paper we study the properties variational eigenvalues and establish a general continuity result, which shows for a sequence of measures converging in the dual of an appropriate Sobolev space, that the associated eigenvalues converge as well. The second part of the paper is devoted to various applications to shape optimization. The main theme is studying shar…
Using methods in the spirit of deterministic homogenisation theory we obtain convergence of the Steklov eigenvalues of a sequence of domains in a Riemannian manifold to weighted Laplace eigenvalues of that manifold. The domains are obtained by removing small geodesic balls that are asymptotically densely uniformly distributed as their radius tends to zero. We use this relationship to construct manifolds that have large Steklov eigenvalues. In dimension two, and with constant weight equal to 1, we prove that Kokarev's upper bound of $8π$ for the first nonzero normalised Steklov eigenvalue on or…
Consider a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary. In this short note we prove that under certain positive curvature assumptions on the manifold and its boundary the Steklov eigenvalues of the manifold are controlled by the Laplace eigenvalues of the boundary. Additionally, in two dimensions we obtain an upper bound for these Steklov eigenvalues in terms of topology of the surface without any curvature restrictions.
We consider three different questions related to the Steklov and mixed Steklov problems on surfaces. These questions are connected by the techniques that we use to study them, which exploit symmetry in various ways even though the surfaces we study do not necessarily have inherent symmetry. In the spirit of the celebrated Hersch-Payne-Schiffer and Weinstock inequalities for Steklov eigenvalues, we obtain a sharp isoperimetric inequality for the mixed Steklov eigenvalues considering the interplay between the eigenvalues of the mixed Steklov-Neumann and Steklov-Dirichlet eigenvalues. In 1980, Ba…
We consider a shape optimization problem for the first mixed Steklov-Dirichlet eigenvalues of domains bounded by two balls in two-point homogeneous space. We give a geometric proof which is motivated by Newton's shell theorem
We study the eigenvalues of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator on a finite subgraph of the integer lattice Zn. We estimate the first n+1 eigenvalues using the number of vertices of the subgraph. As a corollary, we prove that the first non-trivial eigenvalue of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator tends to zero as the number of vertices of the subgraph tends to infinity.
Let $(M^n,g)$ be a complete simply connected $n$-dimensional Riemannian manifold with curvature bounds $\operatorname{Sect}_g\leq κ$ for $κ\leq 0$ and $\operatorname{Ric}_g\geq(n-1)Kg$ for $K\leq 0$. We prove that for any bounded domain $Ω\subset M^n$ with diameter $d$ and Lipschitz boundary, if $Ω^*$ is a geodesic ball in the simply connected space form with constant sectional curvature $κ$ enclosing the same volume as $Ω$, then $σ_1(Ω) \leq C σ_1(Ω^*)$, where $σ_1(Ω)$ and $ σ_1(Ω^*)$ denote the first nonzero Steklov eigenvalues of $Ω$ and $Ω^*$ respectively, and $C=C(n,κ, K, d)$ is an explic…
In this paper, we address the problem of maximizing the Steklov eigenvalues with a diameter constraint. We provide an estimate of the Steklov eigenvalues for a convex domain in terms of its diameter and volume and we show the existence of an optimal convex domain. We establish that balls are never maximizers, even for the first non-trivial eigenvalue that contrasts with the case of volume or perimeter constraints. Under an additional regularity assumption, we are able to prove that the Steklov eigenvalue is multiple for the optimal domain. We illustrate our theoretical results by giving some o…
We prove two explicit bounds for the multiplicities of Steklov eigenvalues $σ_k$ on compact surfaces with boundary. One of the bounds depends only on the genus of a surface and the index $k$ of an eigenvalue, while the other depends as well on the number of boundary components. We also show that on any given smooth Riemannian surface with boundary, the multiplicities of Steklov eigenvalues $σ_k$ are uniformly bounded in $k$.
We give lower bounds for the first non-zero Steklov eigenvalue on connected graphs. These bounds depend on the extrinsic diameter of the boundary and not on the diameter of the graph. We obtain a lower bound which is sharp when the cardinal of the boundary is 2, and asymptotically sharp as the diameter of the boundary tends to infinity in the other cases. We also investigate the case of weigthed graphs and compare our result to the Cheeger inequality.
We consider an eigenvalue problem for the biharmonic operator with Steklov-type boundary conditions. We obtain it as a limiting Neumann problem for the biharmonic operator in a process of mass concentration at the boundary. We study the dependence of the spectrum upon the domain. We show analyticity of the symmetric functions of the eigenvalues under isovolumetric perturbations and prove that balls are critical points for such functions under measure constraint. Moreover, we show that the ball is a maximizer for the first positive eigenvalue among those domains with a prescribed fixed measure.
We prove a lower bound for the $k$-th Steklov eigenvalues in terms of an isoperimetric constant called the $k$-th Cheeger-Steklov constant in three different situations: finite spaces, measurable spaces, and Riemannian manifolds. These lower bounds can be considered as higher order Cheeger type inequalities for the Steklov eigenvalues. In particular it extends the Cheeger type inequality for the first nonzero Steklov eigenvalue previously studied by Escobar in 1997 and by Jammes in 2015 to higher order Steklov eigenvalues. The technique we develop to get this lower bound is based on considerin…
