Let $e_ł(x)$ be a Neumann eigenfunction with respect to the positive Laplacian $Δ$ on a compact Riemannian manifold $M$ with boundary such that $Δ\, e_ł=ł^2 e_ł$ in the interior of $M$ and the normal derivative of $e_ł$ vanishes on the boundary of $M$. Let $χ_λ$ be the unit band spectral projection operator associated with the Neumann Laplacian and $f$ a square integrable function on $M$. We show the following gradient estimate for $χ_λ\,f$ as $λ\geq 1$: $\|\nabla\ χ_ł f\|_\infty\leq Cł\|χ_ł\f\|_\infty+ł^{-1}\|Δ χ_ł f\|_\infty$, where $C$ is a positive constant depending only on $M$. As a corollary, we obtain the gradient estimate of $e_ł$: for every $ł\geq 1$, there holds $\|\nabla e_ł\|_\infty\leq C\,ł\, \|e_ł\|_\infty$.
Consider the eigenfunctions $u$ for a ree rectangular membrane wo that $-Δu=λu$ on $\mathcal R(c,d)=(0,d)\times(0,d)$. In this note we show that if if $u>0$ on $\partial \mathcal R(c,d)) then $u\equiv C$ for some positive constant.
We consider the Dirichlet eigenvalue problem on a simple polytope. We use the Rellich identity to obtain an explicit formula expressing the Dirichlet eigenvalue in terms of the Neumann data on the faces of the polytope of the corresponding eigenfunction. The formula is particular simple for polytopes admitting an inscribed ball tangent to all the faces. Our result could be viewed as a generalization of similar identities for simplices recently found by Christianson [1][2].
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…
The robustness of manifold learning methods is often predicated on the stability of the Neumann Laplacian eigenfunctions under deformations of the assumed underlying domain. Indeed, many manifold learning methods are based on approximating the Neumann Laplacian eigenfunctions on a manifold that is assumed to underlie data, which is viewed through a source of distortion. In this paper, we study the stability of the first Neumann Laplacian eigenfunction with respect to deformations of a domain by a diffeomorphism. In particular, we are interested in the stability of the first eigenfunction on ta…
In this paper, we show that equality in Courant's nodal domain theorem can only be reached for a finite number of eigenvalues of the Neumann Laplacian, in the case of an open, bounded and connected set in R n with a C 1,1 boundary. This result is analogous to Pleijel's nodal domain theorem for the Dirichlet Laplacian (1956). It confirms, in all dimensions, a conjecture formulated by Pleijel, which had already been solved by I. Polterovich for a two-dimensional domain with a piecewise-analytic boundary (2009). We also show that the argument and the result extend to a class of Robin boundary con…
Let $(Ω,g)$ be a piecewise-smooth, bounded convex domain in $\R^2$ and consider $L^2$-normalized Neumann eigenfunctions $ϕ_λ$ with eigenvalue $λ^2$ and $u_λ:= ϕ_λ |_{\partial Ω}$ the associated Dirichlet data (ie. boundary restriction of $ϕ_λ$). Our first main result (Theorem \ref{T:non-con}) is a small-scale {\em non-concentration} estimate: We prove that for {\em any} $x_0 \in \overlineΩ,$ (including boundary corner points) and any $δ\in [0,1),$ $$ \| ϕ_h \|_{B(x_0,λ^{-δ})\cap Ω} = O(λ^{-δ/2}).$$ Our subsequent results involve applications of the nonconcentration estimate to upper bounds for…
We consider Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators associated to $Δ+q$ on a Lipschitz domain in a smooth manifold, where $q$ is an $L^{\infty}$ potential. We prove a Courant-type bound for the nodal count of the extensions $u_k$ of the $k$th Dirichlet-to-Neumann eigenfunctions $ϕ_k$ to the interior satisfying $(Δ+q)u_k=0$. The classical Courant nodal domain theorem is known to hold for Steklov eigenfunctions, which are the harmonic extension of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann eigenfunctions associated to $Δ$. Our result extends it to a larger family of Dirichlet-to-Neumann operators. Our proof makes use of t…
Indian Institute of Technology Madras（印度马德拉斯理工学院）；Institute of Mathematics, Ufa Federal Research Centre, RAS（俄罗斯科学院乌法联邦研究中心数学研究所）；Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Centre for Applicable Mathematics（塔塔基础研究所应用数学中心）
Recent work of the authors and their collaborators has uncovered fundamental connections between the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map, the spectral flow of a certain family of self-adjoint operators, and the nodal deficiency of a Laplacian eigenfunction (or an analogous deficiency associated to a non-bipartite equipartition). Using a refined construction of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map, we strengthen all of these results, in particular getting improved bounds on the nodal deficiency of degenerate eigenfunctions. Our framework is very general, allowing for non-bipartite partitions, non-simple eigenvalu…
It has been empirically observed that eigenfunctions of Laplace's equation $-Δϕ= λϕ$ with Neumann boundary conditions sometimes localize near the boundary of the domain if that boundary is rough (say, fractal). This has some nontrivial implications in acoustics that has been put to real-life use (sound attenuation by noise-protective walls); this short paper describes the mathematical mechanism responsible for this and describes the quantitative strength of the phenomenon for some examples.
In this paper, we prove that the Extended Courant Property fails to be true for certain smooth, strictly convex domains with Neumann boundary condition: there exists a linear combination of a second and a first Neumann eigenfunctions, with three nodal domains. For the proof, we revisit a deformation argument of Jerison and Nadirashvili (J. Amer. Math. Soc. 2000, vol. 13). This argument being interesting in itself, we give full details. In particular, we carefully control the dependence of the constants on the geometry of our Lipschitz domains along the deformations.
We study the existence of Neumann eigenfunctions which do not change sign on the boundary of some special domains. We show that eigenfunctions which are strictly positive on the boundary exist on regular polygons with at least 5 sides, while on equilateral triangles and cubes it is not even possible to find an eigenfunction which is nonnegative on the boundary. We use analytic methods combined with symmetry arguments to prove the result for polygons with six or more sides. The case for the regular pentagon is harder. We develop a validated numerical method to prove this case, which involves it…
We study the problem of estimating the $L^2$ norm of Laplace eigenfunctions on a compact Riemannian manifold $M$ when restricted to a hypersurface $H$. We prove mass estimates for the restrictions of eigenfunctions $ϕ_h$, $(h^2 Δ- 1)ϕ_h = 0$, to $H$ in the region exterior to the coball bundle of $H$, on $h^δ$-scales ($0\leq δ< 2/3$). We use this estimate to obtain an $O(1)$ $L^2$-restriction bound for the Neumann data along $H.$ The estimate also applies to eigenfunctions of semiclassical Schrödinger operators.
The oscillation of a Laplacian eigenfunction gives a great deal of information about the manifold on which it is defined. This oscillation can be encoded in the nodal deficiency, an important geometric quantity that is notoriously hard to compute, or even estimate. Here we compare two recently obtained formulas for the nodal deficiency, one in terms of an energy functional on the space of equipartitions of the manifold, and the other in terms of a two-sided Dirichlet-to-Neumann map defined on the nodal set. We relate these two approaches by giving an explicit formula for the Hessian of the equ…
We deal with the Sturm--Liouville operator $Ly=l(y)=-\dfrac{d^2y}{dx^2}+q(x)y,$ with Dirichlet--Neumann boundary conditions $ y(0)=y'(π)=0 $ in the space $L_2[0,π]$. We assume that the potential $q$ is complex-valued and has the form $q(x)=u'(x)$, where $u\in L_2[0,π]$. Here the derivative is treated in the distributional sense. Our aim is to obtain the detailed asymptotic formulae for eigenvalues and eigen- and associated functions of the operator $L$.
A Laplacian eigenfunction on a two-dimensional manifold dictates some natural partitions of the manifold; the most apparent one being the well studied nodal domain partition. An alternative partition is revealed by considering a set of distinguished gradient flow lines of the eigenfunction - those which are connected to saddle points. These give rise to Neumann domains. We establish complementary definitions for Neumann domains and Neumann lines and use basic Morse homology to prove their fundamental topological properties. We study the eigenfunction restrictions to these domains. Their zero s…
We build a one-parameter family of S^{1}-invariant metrics on the unit disc with fixed total area for which the second eigenvalue of the Laplace operator in the case of both Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions is simple and has an eigenfunction with a closed nodal line. In the case of Neumann boundary conditions, we also prove that this eigenfunction attains its maximum at an interior point, and thus provide a counterexample to the hot spots conjecture on a simply connected surface. This is a consequence of the stronger result that within this family of metrics any given (finite) number …
Let $Ω\subset {\bf R}^d$ be a bounded open set with Lipschitz boundary $Γ$. It will be shown that the Jordan chains of m-sectorial second-order elliptic partial differential operators with measurable coefficients and (local or non-local) Robin boundary conditions in $L_2(Ω)$ can be characterized with the help of Jordan chains of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map and the boundary operator from $H^{1/2}(Γ)$ into $H^{-1/2}(Γ)$. This result extends the Birman--Schwinger principle in the framework of elliptic operators for the characterization of eigenvalues, eigenfunctions and geometric eigenspaces to …
Let $ Ω\subset R^2$ be a bounded piecewise smooth domain and $ϕ_λ$ be a Neumann (or Dirichlet) eigenfunction with eigenvalue $λ^2$ and nodal set ${ N}_{ϕ_λ} = {x \in Ω; ϕ_λ(x) = 0}.$ Let $H \subset Ω$ be an interior $C^ω$ curve. Consider the intersection number $$ n(λ,H):= \# (H \cap N_{ϕ_λ} ).$$ We first prove that for general piecewise-analytic domains, and under an appropriate "goodness" condition on $H$, $$ n(λ,H) = {\mathcal O}_H(λ) (*)$$ as $λ\rightarrow \infty.$ We then prove that the bound in $(*)$ is satisfied in the case of quantum ergodic (QE) sequences of interior eigenfunctions, p…
The nodal set of the Laplacian eigenfunction has co-dimension one and has finite hypersurface measure on a compact Riemannian manifold. In this paper, we investigate the distribution of the nodal sets of eigenfunctions, when the metric on the manifold is analytic. We prove that if the eigenfunctions are equidistributed at a small scale, then the weak limits of the hypersurface volume form of their nodal sets are comparable to the volume form on the manifold. In particular, on the negatively curved manifolds with analytic metric and on the tori, we show that in any eigenbasis, there is a full d…
We give a description of the growth rates of $L^2$-normalized Laplace eigenfunctions on the unit disk with Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. In particular, we show that the growth rates of both Dirichlet and Neumann eigenfunctions are bounded away from zero. Our approach starts with P. Sarnak growth exponents and uses several key asymptotic formulas for Bessel functions or their zeros.
The purpose of this note is to extend to any space dimension the bilinear estimate for eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator on a compact manifold (without boundary) obtained in a previous work in dimension 2. We also give some related trilinear estimates.
The paper is concerned with the doubling estimates and vanishing order of the Steklov eigenfunction on the boundary of a smooth boundary domain $\mathbb R^n$. The eigenfunction is given by a Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. We improve the doubling property shown by Lin and Bellova \cite{BL}. Furthermore, we show that the vanishing order of Steklov eigenfunction is everywhere less than $Cλ$ where $λ$ is the Steklov eigenvalue and $C$ depends only on $Ω$.
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 $Ω$ with rotational symmetry of order two (i.e., $x\inΩ$ iff $-x\inΩ$) "should normally" be rotationally antisymmetric. We give both positive and negative results which highlight the heuristic similarity of this asser…
In the recent work arXiv:1311.3999, the authors proved that real analytic manifolds $(M, g)$ with maximal eigenfunction growth must have a self-focal point p whose first return map has an invariant L1 measure on $S^*_p M$. In this addendum we add a purely dynamical argument on circle maps to improve the conclusion to: all geodesics from p are smoothly closed.
On a convex bounded Euclidean domain, the ground state for the Laplacian with Neumann boundary conditions is a constant, while the Dirichlet ground state is log-concave. The Robin eigenvalue problem can be considered as interpolating between the Dirichlet and Neumann cases, so it seems natural that the Robin ground state should have similar concavity properties. In this paper we show that this is false, by analysing the perturbation problem from the Neumann case. In particular we prove that on polyhedral convex domains, except in very special cases (which we completely classify) the variation …
In this paper we consider eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on a planar domain with polygonal boundary with Dirichlet, Neumann, or mixed boundary conditions. The main result is a quantitative estimate on the $L^2$ mass of eigenfunctions near a point in terms of the distance to the nearest non-adjacent boundary face. In particular, eigenfunctions cannot concentrate completely at any one single point. The technique of proof is to use the commutator ideas from the recent work of the author \cite{Chr-tri,Chr-simp} on triangles and simplices.
In this paper we study the behaviour of the Neumann data of Dirichlet eigenfunctions on triangles. We prove that the $L^2$ norm of the (semi-classical) Neumann data on each side is equal to the length of the side divided by the area of the triangle. The novel feature of this result is that it is {\it not} an asymptotic, but an exact formula. The proof is by simple integrations by parts.
We investigate the geometric properties of Steklov eigenfunctions in smooth manifolds. We derive the refined doubling estimates and Bernstein's inequalities. For the real analytic manifolds, we are able to obtain the sharp upper bound for the measure of interior nodal sets.
In this paper, we study the boundary traces of eigenfunctions on the boundary of a smooth and bounded domain. An identity derived by Bäcker, Fürstburger, Schubert, and Steiner, expressing (in some sense) the asymptotic completeness of the set of boundary traces in a frequency window of size O(1), is proved both for Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. We then prove a semiclassical generalization of this identity.
The nodal set of a Laplacian eigenfunction forms a partition of the underlying manifold or graph. Another natural partition is based on the gradient vector field of the eigenfunction (on a manifold) or on the extremal points of the eigenfunction (on a graph). The submanifolds (or subgraphs) of this partition are called Neumann domains. This paper reviews the subject, as appears in a few recent works and points out some open questions and conjectures. The paper concerns both manifolds and metric graphs and the exposition allows for a comparison between the results obtained for each of them.
Let $e_ł(x)$ be an eigenfunction with respect to the Laplace-Beltrami operator $Δ_M$ on a compact Riemannian manifold $M$ without boundary: $Δ_M e_ł=ł^2 e_ł$. We show the following gradient estimate of $e_ł$: for every $ł\geq 1$, there holds $ł\|e_ł\|_\infty/C\leq \|\nabla e_ł\|_\infty\leq Cł\|e_ł\|_\infty$, where $C$ is a positive constant depending only on $M$.
Let $u$ be an eigenfunction of the Laplacian on a compact manifold with boundary, with Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions, and let $-λ^2$ be the corresponding eigenvalue. We consider the problem of estimating the maximum of $u$ in terms of $λ$, for large $λ$, assuming $u$ is $L^2$-normalized. We prove that $\max_M u\leq C_M λ^{(n-1)/2}$, which is optimal for some $M$. Our proof simplifies some of the arguments used before for such problems. In order to make the article accessible to non-specialists, we review the 'wave equation method' (which has become standard in asymptotic eigenvalue …
This paper is part of a series concerning the isospectral problem for an ellipse. In this paper, we study Cauchy data of eigenfunctions of the ellipse with Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. Using many classical results on ellipse eigenfunctions, we determine the microlocal defect measures of the Cauchy data of the eigenfunctions. The ellipse has integrable billiards, i.e. the boundary phase space is foliated by invariant curves of the billiard map. We prove that, for any invariant curve $C$, there exists a sequence of eigenfunctions whose Cauchy data concentrates on $C$. We use this re…
Let $(M,g)$ be a compact, boundaryless manifold of dimension $n$ with the property that either (i) $n=2$ and $(M,g)$ has no conjugate points, or (ii) the sectional curvatures of $(M,g)$ are nonpositive. Let $Δ$ be the positive Laplacian on $M$ determined by $g$. We study the $L^{2}\to{}L^{p}$ mapping properties of a spectral cluster of $\sqrtΔ$ of width $1/\logλ$. Under the geometric assumptions above, \cite{berard77} Bérard obtained a logarithmic improvement for the remainder term of the eigenvalue counting function which directly leads to a $(\logλ)^{1/2}$ improvement for Hörmander's estimat…
The first terms of the small volume asymptotic expansion for the splitting of Neumann boundary condition Laplacian eigenvalues due to a grounded inclusion of size ε are derived. An explicit formula to compute the first term from the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the unperturbed domain, the inclusion size and position is given. As a consequence, when an eigenvalue of double multiplicity splits in two distinct eigenvalues, one decays like O(1/log(ε)), the other like O(ε^2).
We introduce a new variational principle for the study of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of the Laplacians with Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions on planar domains. In contrast to the classical variational principles, its minimizers are gradients of eigenfunctions instead of the eigenfunctions themselves. This variational principle enables us to give an elementary analytic proof of the famous hot spots conjecture for the class of so-called lip domains. More specifically, we show that each eigenfunction corresponding to the lowest positive eigenvalue of the Neumann Laplacian on such a d…
Let $D \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ be a bounded, connected domain with smooth boundary and let $-Δu = μ_1 u$ be the first nontrivial eigenfunction of the Laplace operator with Neumann boundary conditions. We prove $$ \max_{x \in D} ~u(x) \leq 60 \cdot \max_{x \in \partial D} ~u(x)$$ and emphasize that this constant is uniform among all connected domains with smooth boundary in all dimensions. In particular, the Hot Spots Conjecture cannot fail by an arbitrary factor. The inequality also holds for other (Neumann-)eigenfunctions (possibly with a different constant) provided the eigenvalue is smaller t…
We derive explicit bounds for the remainder term in the local Weyl law for locally hyperbolic manifolds, we also give the estimates of the derivative of this remainder. We use these to obtain explicit bounds for the C^k-norms of the L^2-normalised eigenfunctions in the case spectrum of the Laplacian is discrete, e.g. for closed Riemannian manifolds. We also derive bounds for the local heat trace. Our estimates are purely local and therefore also hold for any manifold at points near which the metric is locally hyperbolic.
Let $(Ω, g)$ be a real analytic Riemannian manifold with real analytic boundary $\partial Ω$. Let $ψ_λ$ be an eigenfunction of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator $Λ$ of $(Ω, g, \partial Ω)$ of eigenvalue $λ$. Let $\mathcal N_{λ_j}$ be its nodal set. Then $\mathcal H^{n-2} (\mathcal N_λ) \leq C_{g, Ω} λ.$ This proves a conjecture of F. H. Lin and K. Bellova.
In this short note we show that the lower bounds of Mangoubi on the inner radius of nodal domains can be improved for quantum ergodic sequences of eigenfunctions, according to a certain power of the radius of shrinking balls on which the eigenfunctions equidistribute. We prove such improvements using a quick application of our recent results (arXiv:1606.02057), which give modified growth estimates for eigenfunctions that equidistribute on small balls. Since by the results of Han and Hezari-Rivière small scale QE holds for negatively curved manifolds on logarithmically shrinking balls, we get l…
