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 orientable surfaces of genus 0 is saturated. For other topological types and eigenvalue indices, we also obtain lower bounds on the best upper bound for the eigenvalue in terms of Laplace maximisers. For the first two eigenvalues, these lower bounds become equalities. A surprising consequence is the existence of free boundary minimal surfaces immersed in the unit ball by first Steklov eigenfunctions and with area strictly larger than $2π$. This was previously thought to be impossible. We provide numerical evidence that some of the already known examples of free boundary minimal surfaces have these properties and also exhibit simulations of new free boundary minimal surfaces of genus 0 in the unit ball with even larger area. The first nonzero Steklov eigenvalue of all these examples is equal to 1, as a consequence of their symmetries and topology, so that they verify a general conjecture by Fraser and Li.
In dimension three and larger, we prove that the isoperimetric inequality of Colbois--El Soufi--Girouard is sharp and implies an upper bound for weighted Laplace eigenvalues. We also show that in any manifold with a fixed metric, one can construct by varying the weight a domain with connected boundary whose first nonzero normalised Steklov eigenvalue is arbitrarily large.
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…
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 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.
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 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…
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.
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.
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.
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…
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…
It was conjectured by Escobar [J. Funct. Anal. 165 (1999), 101--116] that for an $n$-dimensional ($n\geq 3$) smooth compact Riemannian manifold with boundary, which has nonnegative Ricci curvature and boundary principal curvatures bounded below by $c>0$, the first nonzero Steklov eigenvalue is greater than or equal to $c$ with equality holding only on isometrically Euclidean balls with radius $1/c$. In this paper, we confirm this conjecture in the case of nonnegative sectional curvature. The proof is based on a combination of Qiu--Xia's weighted Reilly-type formula with a special choice of the…
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 heat trace asymptotics associated with the Steklov eigenvalue problem on a Riemannian manifold with boundary. In particular, we describe the structure of the Steklov heat invariants and compute the first few of them explicitly in terms of the scalar and mean curvatures. This is done by applying the Seeley calculus to the Dirichlet-to-Neumann operator, whose spectrum coincides with the Steklov eigenvalues. As an application, it is proved that a three--dimensional ball is uniquely defined by its Steklov spectrum among all Euclidean domains with smooth connected boundary.
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 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 prove that in Riemannian manifolds the $k$-th Steklov eigenvalue on a domain and the square root of the $k$-th Laplacian eigenvalue on its boundary can be mutually controlled in terms of the maximum principal curvature of the boundary under sectional curvature conditions. As an application, we derive a Weyl-type upper bound for Steklov eigenvalues. A Pohozaev-type identity for harmonic functions on the domain and the min-max variational characterization of both eigenvalues are important ingredients.
We show that for compact Riemannian manifolds of dimension at least $3$ with nonempty boundary, we can modify the manifold by performing surgeries of codimension $2$ or higher, while keeping the Steklov spectrum nearly unchanged. This shows that certain changes in the topology of a domain do not have an effect when considering shape optimization questions for Steklov eigenvalues in dimensions $3$ and higher. Our result generalizes the 1-dimensional surgery in [FS2] to higher dimensional surgeries and to higher eigenvalues. It is proved in [FS2] that the unit ball does not maximize the first no…
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.
Let $M^n=[0,R)\times \mathbb{S}^{n-1}$ be an $n$-dimensional ($n\geq 2$) smooth Riemannian manifold equipped with the warped product metric $g=dr^2+h^2(r)g_{\mathbb{S}^{n-1}}$ and diffeomorphic to a Euclidean ball. Assume that $M$ has strictly convex boundary. First, for the classical Steklov eigenvalue problem, we obtain an optimal lower (upper, respectively) bound for its spectrum in terms of $h'(R)/h(R)$ when $Ric_g\geq 0$ ($\leq 0$, respectively). Second, for two fourth-order Steklov eigenvalue problems studied by Kuttler and Sigillito in 1968, we derive a lower bound for their spectra in …
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…
Using expander graphs, we construct a sequence of smooth compact surfaces with boundary of perimeter N, and with the first non-zero Steklov eigenvalue uniformly bounded away from zero. This answers a question which was raised in [9]. The genus grows linearly with N, this is the optimal growth rate.
We give explicit isoperimetric upper bounds for all Steklov eigenvalues of a compact orientable surface with boundary, in terms of the genus, the length of the boundary, and the number of boundary components. Our estimates generalize a recent result of Fraser-Schoen, as well as the classical inequalites obtained by Hersch-Payne-Schiffer, whose approach is used in the present paper.
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 obtain upper bounds for the Steklov eigenvalues $σ_k(M)$ of a smooth, compact, connected, $n$-dimensional submanifold $M$ of Euclidean space with boundary $Σ$ that involve the intersection indices of $M$ and of $Σ$. One of our main results is an explicit upper bound in terms of the intersection index of $Σ$, the volume of $Σ$ and the volume of $M$ as well as dimensional constants. By also taking the injectivity radius of $Σ$ into account, we obtain an upper bound that has the optimal exponent of $k$ with respect to the asymptotics of the Steklov eigenvalues as $k \to \infty$.
We obtain upper and lower bounds for Steklov eigenvalues of submanifolds with prescribed boundary in Euclidean space. A very general upper bound is proved, which depends only on the geometry of the fixed boundary and on the measure of the interior. Sharp lower bounds are given for hypersurfaces of revolution with connected boundary: we prove that each eigenvalue is uniquely minimized by the ball. We also observe that each surface of revolution with connected boundary is isospectral to the disk.
We prove that the isoperimetric inequality due to Hersch-Payne-Schiffer for the n-th nonzero Steklov eigenvalue of a bounded simply-connected planar domain is sharp for all n=1,2,... The equality is attained in the limit by a sequence of simply-connected domains degenerating to the disjoint union of n identical disks. We give a new proof of this inequality for n=2 and show that it is strict in this case. Related results are also obtained for the product of two consecutive Steklov eigenvalues.
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 h…
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…
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 present a unified description of extremal metrics for the Laplace and Steklov eigenvalues on manifolds of arbitrary dimension using the notion of $n$-harmonic maps. Our approach extends the well-known results linking extremal metrics for eigenvalues on surfaces with minimal immersions and harmonic maps. In the process, we uncover two previously unknown features of the Steklov eigenvalues. First, we show that in higher dimensions there is a unique normalization involving both the volume of the boundary and of the manifold itself, which leads to meaningful extremal eigenvalue problems. Second…
Given a smooth compact hypersurface $M$ with boundary $Σ=\partial M$, we prove the existence of a sequence $M_j$ of hypersurfaces with the same boundary as $M$, such that each Steklov eigenvalue $σ_k(M_j)$ tends to zero as $j$ tends to infinity. The hypersurfaces $M_j$ are obtained from $M$ by a local perturbation near a point of its boundary. Their volumes and diameters are arbitrarily close to those of $M$, while the principal curvatures of the boundary remain unchanged.
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.
In recent years, eigenvalue optimization problems have received a lot of attention, in particular, due to their connection with the theory of minimal surfaces. In the present paper we prove that on any orientable surface there exists a smooth metric maximizing the first normalized Steklov eigenvalue. For surfaces of genus zero, this has been earlier proved by A. Fraser and R. Schoen. Our approach builds upon their ideas and further developments due to R. Petrides. As a corollary, we show that there exist free boundary branched minimal immersions of an arbitrary compact orientable surface with …
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 …
In this paper we construct compact manifolds with fixed boundary geometry which admit Riemannian metrics of unit volume with arbitrarily large Steklov spectral gap. We also study the effect of localized conformal deformations that fix the boundary geometry. For instance, we prove that it is possible to make the spectral gap arbitrarily large using conformal deformations which are localized on domains of small measure, as long as the support of the deformations contains and connects each component of the boundary.
