We study the behaviour of the first eigenfunction of the Dirichlet Laplacian on a planar convex domain near its maximum. We show that the eccentricity and orientation of the superlevel sets of the eigenfunction stabilise as they approach the maximum, uniformly with respect to the eccentricity of the domain itself. This is achieved by obtaining quantitatively sharp second derivative estimates, which are consistent with the shape of the superlevel sets. In particular, we prove that the eigenfunction is concave (rather than merely log concave) in an entire superlevel set near its maximum. By estimating the mixed second and third derivatives partial derivatives of the eigenfunction, we also determine the rate at which a degree 2 Taylor polynomial approximates the eigenfunction itself.
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 …
We obtain sharp uniform bounds on the low lying eigenfunctions for a class of semiclassical pseudodifferential operators with double characteristics and complex valued symbols, under the assumption that the quadratic approximations along the double characteristics are elliptic.
We consider uniformly elliptic operators with Dirichlet or Neumann homogeneous boundary conditions on a domain $Ω$ in ${\mathbb{R}}^N$. We consider deformations $ϕ(Ω)$ of $Ω$ obtained by means of a locally Lipschitz homeomorphism $ϕ$ and we estimate the variation of the eigenfunctions and eigenvalues upon variation of $ϕ$. We prove general stability estimates without using uniform upper bounds for the gradients of the maps $ϕ$. As an application, we obtain estimates on the rate of convergence for eigenvalues and eigenfunctions when a domain with an outward cusp is approximated by a sequence of…
We study the Laplacian perturbed by two delta potentials on a two-dimensional flat torus. There are two types of eigenfunctions for this operator: old, or unperturbed eigenfunctions which are eigenfunctions of the standard Laplacian, and new, perturbed eigenfunctions which are affected by the scatterers. We prove that along a density one sequence, the new eigenfunctions are uniformly distributed in configuration space, provided that the difference of the scattering points is Diophantine.
We study the cubic non linear Schrödinger equation (NLS) on compact surfaces. On the sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$ and more generally on Zoll surfaces, we prove that, for $s>1/4$, NLS is uniformly well-posed in $H^s$, which is sharp on the sphere. The main ingredient in our proof is a sharp bilinear estimate for Laplace spectral projectors on compact surfaces. On étudie l'équation de Schrödinger non linéaire (NLS) sur une surface compacte.Sur la sphère $\mathbb{S}^2$ et plus généralement sur toute surface de Zoll, on démontre que pour $s>1/4$, NLS est uniformément bien posée dans $H^s$, ce qui est opt…
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 …
We establish the existence of ground states on Euclidean space for the Laplace operator involving the Hardy type potential. This gives rise to the existence of the principal eigenfunctions for the Laplace operator involving weighted Hardy potentials. We also obtain a higher integrability property for the principal eigenfunction. This is used to examine the behaviour of the principal eigenfunction around 0.
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…
We use probabilistic tools based on Brownian motion and Feynman-Kac formulae to investigate the heat profile for the ground state Dirichlet and second Neumann eigenfunctions. Among other topics, we comment on supremum norm bounds for ground state Dirichlet eigenfunctions and look at the corresponding Neumann problem, namely the comparison of maximum temperatures on the interior and the boundary, the latter being partially motivated by the hot spots problem. We also investigate the proximity/distance of level sets of ground state Dirichlet eigenfunctions, some with analogous statements for Neum…
In a recent paper, we exhibit a link between the average local growth of Laplace eigenfunctions on surfaces and the size of their nodal set. In that paper, the average local growth is computed using the uniform - or $L^\infty$ - growth exponents on disks of wavelength radius. The purpose of this note is to prove similar results for a broader class of $L^q$ growth exponents with $q \in (1, \infty)$. More precisely, we show that the size of the nodal set is bounded above and below by the product of the average local $L^q$ growth with the frequency. We briefly discuss the relation between this ne…
Let $M$ be a compact manifold with or without boundary and $H\subset M$ be a smooth, interior hypersurface. We study the restriction of Laplace eigenfunctions solving $(-h^2Δ_g-1)u=0$ to $H$. In particular, we study the degeneration of $u|_H$ as one microlocally approaches the glancing set by finding the optimal power $s_0$ so that $(1+h^2Δ_H)_+^{s_0}u|_H$ remains uniformly bounded in $L^2(H)$ as $h\to 0$. Moreover, we show that this bound is saturated at every $h$-dependent scale near glancing using examples on the disk and sphere. We give an application of our estimates to quantum ergodic re…
We consider general second order uniformly elliptic operators subject to homogeneous boundary conditions on open sets $ϕ(Ω)$ parametrized by Lipschitz homeomorphisms $ϕ$ defined on a fixed reference domain $Ω$. Given two open sets $ϕ(Ω)$, $\tilde ϕ(Ω)$ we estimate the variation of resolvents, eigenvalues and eigenfunctions via the Sobolev norm $\|\tilde ϕ-ϕ\|_{W^{1,p}(Ω)}$ for finite values of $p$, under natural summability conditions on eigenfunctions and their gradients. We prove that such conditions are satisfied for a wide class of operators and open sets, including open sets with Lipschit…
We give uniform upper and lower bounds for the L^2 norm of the restriction of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on the three-dimensional standard flat torus to surfaces with non-vanishing curvature. We also present several related results concerning the nodal sets of eigenfunctions.
We obtain $C^{2,β}$ estimates up to the boundary for solutions to degenerate Monge-Ampère equations of the type $$ \det D^2 u = f~~\text{in}~Ω, \quad \quad ~f\sim \text{dist}^α(\cdot, \partialΩ)~\text{near}~\partialΩ,~α>0. $$ As a consequence we obtain global $C^\infty$ estimates up to the boundary for the eigenfunctions of the Monge-Ampère operator $(\det D^2 u)^{1/n}$ on smooth, bounded, uniformly convex domains in $R^n$.
We consider the asymptotic behavior of nonlinear nonlocal flows $u_t+(-\La)^{1/2}u=0$ to find the geometric property of the solutions in nonlinear eigenvalue problem: (-\La)^{1/2}\vp=λ\vp posed in a strictly convex domain $Ω\subset\R^n$ with $\vp>0$ in $Ω$ and $\vp=0$ on $\R^n\bsΩ$. This is corresponding to an eigenvalue problem for Cauchy process. The concavity of $\vp$ is well known for the dimension $n=1$. In this paper, we will show $\vp^{-\frac{2}{n+1}}$ is convex. Moreover, the eventual power-convexity of the parabolic flows is also proved. In the final section, We extend geometric resul…
We construct a multiply connected domain in $\mathbb{R}^2$ for which the second eigenfunction of the Laplacian with Robin boundary conditions has an interior nodal line. In the process, we adapt a bound of Donnelly-Fefferman type to obtain a uniform estimate on the size of the nodal sets of a sequence of solutions to a certain class of elliptic equations in the interior of a sequence of domains, which does not depend directly on any boundary behaviour. This also gives a new proof of the nodal line property of the example in the Dirichlet case.
Could the location of the maximum point for a positive solution of a semilinear Poisson equation on a convex domain be independent of the form of the nonlinearity? Cima and Derrick found certain evidence for this surprising conjecture. We construct counterexamples on the half-disk, by working with the torsion function and first Dirichlet eigenfunction. On an isosceles right triangle the conjecture fails again. Yet the conjecture has merit, since the maxima of the torsion function and eigenfunction are unexpectedly close together. It is an open problem to quantify this closeness in terms of the…
This paper is dedicated to $L^p$ bounds on eigenfunctions of a Schödinger-type operator $(-Δ_g)^{α/2} +V$ on closed Riemannian manifolds for critically singular potentials $V$. The operator $(-Δ_g)^{α/2}$ is defined spectrally in terms of the eigenfunctions of $-Δ_g$. We obtain also quasimodes and spectral clusters estimates. As an application, we derive Strichartz estimates for the fractional wave equation $(\partial_t^2+(-Δ_g)^{α/2}+V)u=0$. The wave kernel techniques recently developed by Bourgain-Shao-Sogge-Yao and Shao-Yao play a key role in this paper. We construct a new reproducing opera…
We study the discretization of a Dirichlet form on the Koch snowflake domain and its boundary with the property that both the interior and the boundary can support positive energy. We compute eigenvalues and eigenfunctions, and demonstrate the localization of high energy eigenfunctions on the boundary via a modification of an argument of Filoche and Mayboroda. Hölder continuity and uniform approximation of eigenfunctions are also discussed.
This paper is concerned with eigenvalue problems for non-symmetric elliptic operators with large drifts in bounded domains under Dirichlet boundary conditions. We consider the minimal principal eigenvalue and the related principal eigenfunction in the class of drifts having a given, but large, pointwise upper bound. We show that, in the asymptotic limit of large drifts, the maximal points of the optimal principal eigenfunctions converge to the set of points maximizing the distance to the boundary of the domain. We also show the uniform asymptotic profile of these principal eigenfunctions and t…
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 estimate the $L^2$ norm of the restriction to a totally geodesic submanifold of the eigenfunctions of the Laplace-Beltrami operator on the standard flat torus $\mathbb{T}^d$, $d\ge2$. We reduce getting correct bounds to counting lattice points in the intersection of some $ν$-transverse bands on the sphere. Moreover, we prove the correct bounds for rational totally geodesic submanifolds of arbitrary codimension. In particular, we verify the conjecture of Bourgain-Rudnick on $L^2$-restriction estimates for rational hyperplanes. On $\mathbb{T}^2$, we prove the uniform $L^2$ restriction bounds …
Consider the class of optimal partition problems with long range interactions \[ \inf \left\{ \sum_{i=1}^k λ_1(ω_i):\ (ω_1,\ldots, ω_k) \in \mathcal{P}_r(Ω) \right\}, \] where $λ_1(\cdot)$ denotes the first Dirichlet eigenvalue, and $\mathcal{P}_r(Ω)$ is the set of open $k$-partitions of $Ω$ whose elements are at distance at least $r$: $\textrm{dist}(ω_i,ω_j)\geq r$ for every $i\neq j$. In this paper we prove optimal uniform bounds (as $r\to 0^+$) in $\mathrm{Lip}$-norm for the associated $L^2$-normalized eigenfunctions, connecting in particular the nonlocal case $r>0$ with the local one $r \t…
We generalize the Stein-Tomas [17] $L^2$-restricition theorem and the uniform Sobolev estimates of Kenig, Ruiz and the second author [11] by allowing critically singular potential. We also obtain Strichartz estimates for Schrödinger and wave operators with such potentials. Due to the fact that there may be nontrivial eigenfunctions we are required to make certain spectral assumptions, such as assuming that the solutions only involve sufficiently large frequencies.
We study the nodal sets of eigenfunctions of the Laplacian on the standard d-dimensional flat torus. The question we address is: Can a fixed hypersurface lie on the nodal sets of eigenfunctions with arbitrarily large eigenvalue? In dimension two, we show that this happens only for segments of closed geodesics. In higher dimensions, certain cylindrical sets do lie on nodal sets corresponding to arbitrarily large eigenvalues. Our main result is that this cannot happen for hypersurfaces with nonzero Gauss-Kronecker curvature. In dimension two, the result follows from a uniform lower bound for the…
This is a partly expository, partly new paper on sup norm estimates of eigenfunctions. The focus is on the quantum completely integrable case. We give a new proof of the main result of our paper ``Riemannian manifolds with uniformly bounded eigenfunctions' (Duke Math J. 111 (2002), 97-132), based on the analysis of quasi-modes and Birkhoff normal forms. We also discuss related issues of resonant normal forms and tunnelling between tori.
We use the mirror coupling of Brownian motion to show that under a $β\in (0,1)$-dependent Kato type assumption (which is satisfied under a suitable $L^q$-assumption on the electro-magnetic potential, where $q$ depends on $β$ and the dimension $d$) on the possibly nonsmooth electro-magnetic potential, the corresponding magnetic Schrödinger semigroup in $\mathbb{R}$ has a global $L^{p}$-to-$C^{0,β}$ Hölder smoothing property for all $p\in [1,\infty]$, in particular all eigenfunctions are uniformly $β$-Hölder continuous. This result shows that the eigenfunctions of the Hamilton operator of a mole…
We show how local bounded interactions in an unbounded Hamiltonian lead to eigenfunctions with favorable low-rank properties. To this end, we utilize ideas from quantum entanglement of multi-particle spin systems. We begin by analyzing the connection between entropy area laws and low-rank approximability. The characterization for 1D chains such as Matrix Product States (MPS) / Tensor Trains (TT) is rather extensive though incomplete. We then show that a Nearest Neighbor Interaction (NNI) Hamiltonian has eigenfunctions that are approximately separable in a certain sense. Under a further assumpt…
