In this paper we are interested in the following fourth order eigenvalue problem coming from the buckling of thin films on liquid substrates: \begin{equation*}
\begin{cases}
Δ^2 u+ κ^2 u=-λΔu &\text{in } B_1,\newline
u=\partial_r u= 0 &\text{on } \partial B_1,
\end{cases} \end{equation*} where $B_1$ is the unit ball in $\mathbb{R}^N$.
When $κ> 0$ is small, we show that the first eigenvalue is simple and the first eigenfunction, which gives the shape of the film for small displacements, is positive. However, when $κ$ increases, we establish that the first eigenvalue is not always simple and the first eigenfunction may change sign. More precisely, for any $κ\in (0,+\infty)$, we give the exact multiplicity of the first eigenvalue and the number of nodal regions of the first eigenfunction.
We investigate the measure of nodal sets for Robin and Neumann eigenfunctions in the domain and on the boundary of the domain. A polynomial upper bound for the interior nodal sets is obtained for Robin eigenfunctions in the smooth domain. For the analytic domain, the sharp upper bounds of the interior nodal sets was shown for Robin eigenfunctions. More importantly, we obtain the sharp upper bounds for the boundary nodal sets of Neumann eigenfunctions with new quantitative global Carleman estimates. Furthermore, the sharp doubling inequality and vanishing order of Robin eigenfunctions on the bo…
The aim of this article is to provide a simple and unified way to obtain the sharp upper bounds of nodal sets of eigenfunctions for different types of eigenvalue problems on real analytic domains. The examples include biharmonic Steklov eigenvalue problems, buckling eigenvalue problems and champed-plate eigenvalue problems. The geometric measure of nodal sets are derived from doubling inequalities and growth estimates for eigenfunctions. It is done through analytic estimates of Morrey-Nirenberg and Carleman estimates.
We introduce the class of quasiconvex Lipschitz domains, which covers both $C^1$ and convex domains, to the study of boundary unique continuation for elliptic operators. In particular, we prove the upper bound of the size of nodal sets for Dirichlet eigenfunctions of general elliptic equations in bounded quasiconvex Lipschitz domains. Our result is new even for Laplace operator in convex domains.
We consider the buckling eigenvalue problem for a clamped plate in the annulus. We identify the first eigenvalue in dependence of the inner radius, and study the number of nodal domains of the corresponding eigenfunctions. Moreover, in order to investigate the asymptotic behavior of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions as the inner radius approaches the outer one, we provide an analytical study of the buckling problem in rectangles with mixed boundary conditions.
In this paper, the spectrum of the following fourth order problem \begin{equation*} \begin{cases} Δ^2 u+νu=-λΔu &\text{in } D_1,\newline u=\partial_r u= 0 &\text{on } \partial D_1, \end{cases} \end{equation*} where $D_1$ is the unit ball in ${\mathbb R}^N$, is determined for $ν< 0$ as well as the nodal properties of the corresponding eigenfunctions. In particular, we show that the first eigenvalue is simple and that the corresponding eigenfunction is radial and (up to a multiplicative factor) positive and decreasing with respect to the radius. This completes earlier results obtained for $ν\ge …
In this paper, we derive the sharp lower and upper bounds of nodal lengths of Laplacian eigenfunctions in the disc. Furthermore, we observe a geometric property of the eigenfunctions whose nodal curves maximize the nodal length.
This paper is a continuation and an extension of our recent work [3] on the geometric structures of Laplacian eigenfunctions and their applications to inverse scattering problems. In [3], the analytic behaviour of the Laplacian eigenfunctions is investigated at a point where two nodal or generalised singular lines intersect. It reveals a certain intriguing property that the vanishing order of the eigenfunction at the intersecting point is related to the rationality of the intersecting angle. In this paper, we consider the 3D counterpart of such a study by studying the analytic behaviours of th…
In this article, we consider eigenfunctions $u$ of the bi-harmonic operator, i.e., $\triangle^2u=λ^2u$ on $Ω$ with some homogeneous linear boundary conditions. We assume that $Ω\subseteq\mathbb{R}^n$ ($n\geq2$) is a $C^{\infty}$ bounded domain, $\partialΩ$ is piecewise analytic and $\partialΩ$ is analytic except a set $Γ\subseteq\partialΩ$ which is a finite union of some compact $(n-2)$ dimensional submanifolds of $\partialΩ$. The main result of this paper is that the measure upper bounds of the nodal sets of the eigenfunctions is controlled by $\sqrtλ$. We first define a frequency function an…
In this paper, we obtain the upper bounds for the Hausdorff measures of nodal sets of eigenfunctions with the Robin boundary conditions, i.e., \begin{equation*} {\left\{\begin{array}{l} \triangle u+λu=0,\quad in\quad Ω,\\ u_ν+μu=0,\quad on\quad\partialΩ, \end{array} \right.} \end{equation*} where the domain $Ω\subseteq\mathbb{R}^n$, $u_ν$ means the derivative of $u$ along the outer normal direction of $\partialΩ$. We show that, if $Ω$ is bounded and analytic, and the corresponding eigenvalue $λ$ is large enough,then the measure upper bounds for the nodal sets of eigenfunctions are $C\sqrtλ$, w…
We show that Steklov eigenfunctions in a bounded Lipschitz domain have wavelength dense nodal sets near the boundary, in contrast to what can happen deep inside the domain. As a converse, in a two-dimensional Lipschitz domain $Ω$, we prove that any nodal domain of a Steklov eigenfunction contains a half-ball centered at $\partialΩ$ of radius $c_Ω/λ$.
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.
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…
This article concerns the number of nodal domains of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on special Riemannian $3$-manifolds, namely nontrivial principal $S^1$ bundles $P \to X$ over Riemann surfaces equipped with certain $S^1$ invariant metrics, the Kaluza-Klein metrics. We prove for generic Kaluza-Klein metrics that any Laplacian eigenfunction has exactly two nodal domains unless it is invariant under the $S^1$ action. We also construct an explicit orthonormal eigenbasis on the flat $3$-torus $\mathbb{T}^3$ for which every non-constant eigenfunction belonging to the basis has two nodal domains.
We prove sharp upper and lower bounds for the nodal length of Steklov eigenfunctions on real-analytic Riemannian surfaces with boundary. The argument involves frequency function methods for harmonic functions in the interior of the surface as well as the construction of exponentially accurate approximations for the Steklov eigenfunctions near the boundary.
We study the nodal set of Laplace eigenfunctions on the flat $2d$ torus $\mathbb{T}^2$. We prove an asymptotic law for the nodal length of such eigenfunctions, under some growth assumptions on their Fourier coefficients. Moreover, we show that their nodal set is asymptotically equidistributed on $\mathbb{T}^2$. The proofs are based on Bourgain's de-randomisation technique and the main new ingredient, which might be of independent interest, is the integrability of arbitrarily large powers of the doubling index of Laplace eigenfunctions on $\mathbb{T}^2$, based on the work of Nazarov \cite{N93,N…
We study the stability properties of nodal sets of Laplace eigenfunctions on compact manifolds under specific small perturbations. We prove that nodal sets are fairly stable if said perturbations are relatively small, more formally, supported at a sub-wavelength scale. We do not need any assumption on the topology of the nodal sets. As an indirect application, we are able to show that a certain "Payne property" concerning the second nodal line remains stable under controlled perturbations of the domain.
We study the nodal curves of low energy Dirichlet eigenfunctions in generalized curvilinear quadrilaterals. The techniques can be seen as a generalization of the tools developed by Grieser-Jerison in a series of works on convex planar domains and rectangles with one curved edge and a large aspect ratio. Here, we study the structure of the nodal curve in greater detail, in that we find precise bounds on its curvature, with uniform estimates up to the two points where it meets the domain at right angles, and show that many of our results hold for relatively small aspect ratios of the side length…
This is a survey for the JDG 50th Anniversary conference of recent results on nodal sets of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on a compact Riemannian manifold. In part the techniques are `local', i.e. only assuming eigenfunctions are defined on small balls, and in part the techniques are `global', i.e. exploiting dynamics of the geodesic flow. The local part begins with a review of doubling indices and freqeuency functions as local measures of fast or slow growth of eigenfunctions. The pattern of boxes with maximal doubling indices plays a central role in the results of Logunov-Malinnokova, givi…
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…
Let $Ω$ be a bounded domain in $\mathbb{R}^n$ with $C^{1}$ boundary and let $u_λ$ be a Dirichlet Laplace eigenfunction in $Ω$ with eigenvalue $λ$. We show that the $(n-1)$-dimensional Hausdorff measure of the zero set of $u_λ$ does not exceed $C(Ω)\sqrtλ$. This result is new even for the case of domains with $C^\infty$-smooth boundary.
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…
We show that, in round spheres of dimension $n\geq3$, for any given collection of codimension 2 smooth submanifolds $\mathfrak{S}:=\{Σ_1,...,Σ_N\}$ of arbitrarily complicated topology ($N$ being the complex dimension of the spinor bundle), there is always an eigenfunction $ψ=(ψ_1,...,ψ_N)$ of the Dirac operator such that each submanifold $Σ_a$, modulo ambient diffeomorphism, is a structurally stable nodal set of the spinor component $ψ_a$. The result holds for any choice of trivialization of the spinor bundle. The emergence of these structures takes place at small scales and sufficiently high …
This article contains a generalization of the authors' results on numbers of nodal points of eigenfunctions on "good curves" in analytic plane domains (arXiv:0710.0101). The term `good' means that the $L^2$ norms of restrictions of eigenfunctions of eigenvalue $λ^2$ to the curve are bounded below by $e^{- C λ}$. In this article, the result is generalized to all real analytic Riemannian manifolds $(M, g)$ of any dimension $m$ without boundary. Moreover, a similar lower bound is given for the Hausdorff $m-2$ measure of the intersection of the nodal set with a good real analytic hypersurface. Mos…
In this note, we make an observation that Laplacian eigenfunctions fail equidistribution at the Planck scale. Furthermore, equidistribution at the same scale also fails around the points where the eigenfunctions have large values.
