This paper investigates the link between the Maximum Principle and the sign of the (generalized) principal eigenvalue for elliptic operators in unbounded domains. Our approach covers the cases of Dirichlet, Neumann, and (indefinite) Robin boundary conditions and treat them in a unified way. For a certain class of elliptic operators (including the class of selfadjoint operators), we establish that the positivity of the principal eigenvalue is a necessary and sufficient condition for the validity of the Maximum Principle. If the principal eigenvalue is zero, no general answer holds; instead, under a natural condition on the domain's size at infinity, we show that the operator satisfies what we call the Critical Maximum Principle. We also address the question of the simplicity of the principal eigenvalue, and a series of counterexamples is proposed to disprove some possible misconceptions. Our main results are new even for the more classical cases of Dirichlet boundary conditions and selfadjoint operators.
Using three different notions of generalized principal eigenvalue of linear second order elliptic operators in unbounded domains, we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for the validity of the maximum principle, as well as for the existence of positive eigenfunctions satisfying Dirichlet boundary conditions. Relations between these principal eigenvalues, their simplicity and several other properties are further discussed.
We consider a superlinear perturbation of the eigenvalue problem for the Robin Laplacian plus an indefinite and unbounded potential. Using variational tools and critical groups, we show that when $λ$ is close to a nonprincipal eigenvalue, then the problem has seven nontrivial solutions. We provide sign information for six of them.
We prove the Harnack inequality for general nonlocal elliptic equations with zero order terms. As an application we prove the existence of the principal eigenvalue in general domains. Furthermore, we study the eigenvalue problem associated to the existence of self-similar solutions to the parabolic problem and provide estimates on the decay rate.
We analyze the asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues of nonlinear elliptic problems under Dirichlet boundary conditions and mixed (Dirichlet, Neumann) boundary conditions on domains becoming unbounded. We make intensive use of Picone identity to overcome nonlinearity complications. Altogether the use of Picone identity makes the proof easier with respect to the known proof in the linear case. Surprisingly the asymptotic behavior under mixed boundary conditions critically differs from the case of pure Dirichlet boundary conditions for some class of problems.
We consider a nonlinear eigenvalue problem under Robin boundary conditions in a domain with (possibly noncompact) smooth boundary. The problem involves a weighted p-Laplacian operator and subcritical nonlinearities satisfying Ambrosetti-Rabinowitz type conditions. Using Morse theory and a cohomological local splitting as in Degiovanni et al. [5], we prove the existence of a nontrivial weak solution for all (real) values of the eigenvalue parameter. Our result is new even in the semilinear case p = 2 and complements some recent results obtained in Autuori et al. [1].
We explicitly evaluate the principal eigenvalue of the extremal Pucci's sup--operator for a class of special plane domains, and we prove that, for fixed area, the eigenvalue is minimal for the most symmetric set.
We consider a class of nonlinear integro-differential operators and prove existence of two principal (half) eigenvalues in bounded smooth domains with exterior Dirichlet condition. We then establish simplicity of the principal eigenfunctions in viscosity sense, maximum principles, continuity property of the principal eigenvalues with respect to domains etc. We also prove an anti-maximum principle and study existence result for some nonlinear problem via Rabinowitz bifurcation-type results.
We study an asymptotic behaviour of the principal eigenvalue for an elliptic operator with large advection which is given by a gradient of a potential function. It is shown that the principal eigenvalue decays exponentially under the velocity potential well condition as the parameter tends to infinity.
In the present paper we obtain growth monotonicity estimates of the principal Dirichlet-Laplacian eigenvalue in bounded non-Lipschitz domains. The proposed method is based on composition operators generated by quasiconformal mappings and their applications to weighted Sobolev inequalities.
We investigate the effect of frequency on the principal eigenvalue of a time-periodic parabolic operator with Dirichlet, Robin or Neumann boundary conditions. The monotonicity and asymptotic behaviors of the principal eigenvalue with respect to the frequency parameter are established. Our results prove a conjecture raised by Hutson, Michaikow and Poláčik [2001 J. Math. Biol.].
This paper is concerned with the ergodic problem for superquadratic viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations with exponent m \textgreater{} 2. We prove that the generalized principal eigenvalue of the equation converges to a constant as m $\rightarrow$ $\infty$, and that the limit coincides with the generalized principal eigenvalue of an ergodic problem with gradient constraint. We also investigate some qualitative properties of the generalized principal eigenvalue with respect to a perturbation of the potential function. It turns out that different situations take place according to m = 2, 2 \textle…
We study the fully nonlinear elliptic equation $F(D^2u,Du,u,x) = f$ in a smooth bounded domain $Ω$, under the assumption the nonlinearity $F$ is uniformly elliptic and positively homogeneous. Recently, it has been shown that such operators have two principal "half" eigenvalues, and that the corresponding Dirichlet problem possesses solutions, if both of the principal eigenvalues are positive. In this paper, we prove the existence of solutions of the Dirichlet problem if both principal eigenvalues are negative, provided the "second" eigenvalue is positive, and generalize the anti-maximum princi…
We prove the existence of a principal eigenvalue associated to the $\infty$-Laplacian plus lower order terms and the Neumann boundary condition in a bounded smooth domain. As an application we get uniqueness and existence results for the Neumann problem and a decay estimate for viscosity solutions of the Neumann evolution problem.
We study existence of principal eigenvalues of fully nonlinear integro-differential elliptic equations with a drift term via the Krein-Rutman theorem which based on regularity up to boundary of viscosity solutions. We also show the simplicity of the eigenfunctions in viscosity sense by a nonlocal version of ABP estimate.
We characterize the validity of the Maximum Principle in bounded domains for fully nonlinear degenerate elliptic operators in terms of the sign of a suitably defined generalized principal eigenvalue. Here, maximum principle refers to the non-positivity of viscosity subsolutions of the Dirichlet problem. This characterization is derived in terms of a new notion of generalized principal eigenvalue, which is needed because of the possible degeneracy of the operator, admitted in full generality. We further discuss the relations between this notion and other natural generalizations of the classical…
In this paper we show the existence of two principal eigenvalues associated to general non-convex fully nonlinear elliptic operators with Neumann boundary conditions in a bounded $C^2$ domain. We study these objects and we establish some of their basic properties. Finally, Lipschitz regularity, uniqueness and existence results for the solution of the Neumann problem are given.
In this article we present a new technique to obtain a lower bound for the principal Dirichlet eigenvalue of a fully nonlinear elliptic operator. We ilustrate the construction of an appropriate radial function required to obtain the bound in several examples. In particular we use our results to prove that $\lim_{p\to \infty}λ_{1,p}=λ_{1,\infty}=\left(\fracπ{2R}\right)^2$ where $λ_{1,p}$ and $λ_{1,\infty}$ are the principal eigenvalue for the homogeneous $p$-laplacian and the homogeneous infinity laplacian respectively.
This paper is concerned with the ergodic problem for viscous Hamilton-Jacobi equations having superlinear Hamiltonian, inward-pointing drift, and positive potential which vanishes at infinity. Assuming some radial symmetry of the drift and the potential outside a ball, we establish sharp estimates of the generalized principal eigenvalue with respect to a perturbation of the potential.
The current paper {establishes} criteria for the existence of principal eigenvalues of time periodic cooperative linear nonlocal dispersal systems with Direchlet type, Neumann type or periodic type boundary conditions. It is shown that such a nonlocal dispersal system has a principal eigenvalue in the following cases: the nonlocal dispersal distance is sufficiently small; the spatial inhomogeneity satisfies a so called vanishing condition; or the spatial inhomogeneity is nearly globally homogeneous. Moreover, it is shown that the principal eigenvalue of a time periodic cooperative linear nonlo…
In this paper we investigate homogenization results for the principal eigenvalue problem associated to $1$-homogeneous, uniformly elliptic, second-order operators. Under rather general assumptions, we prove that the principal eigenpair associated to an oscillatory operator converges to the eigenpair associated to the effective one. This includes the case of fully nonlinear operators. Rates of convergence for the eigenvalues are provided for linear and nonlinear problems, under extra regularity/convexity assumptions. Finally, a linear rate of convergence (in terms of the oscillation parameter) …
We study the generalized eigenvalue problem in $\mathbb{R}^N$ for a general convex nonlinear elliptic operator which is locally elliptic and positively $1$-homogeneous. Generalizing article of Berestycki and Rossi in [Comm. Pure Appl. Math. 68 (2015), no. 6, 1014-1065] we consider three different notions of generalized eigenvalues and compare them. We also discuss the maximum principles and uniqueness of principal eigenfunctions.
The notions of generalized principal eigenvalue for linear second order elliptic operators in general domains introduced by Berestycki et al. \cite{BNV,BR0,BR3} have become a very useful and important tool in analysis of partial differential equations. In this paper, we extend these notions for quasilinear operator of the form $$\CK_V[u]:=-Δ_p u +Vu^{p-1},\quad\quad u \geq0.$$ This operator is a natural generalization of self-adjoint linear operators. If $Ø$ is a smooth bounded domain, we already proved in \cite{NV} that the generalized principal eigenvalue coincides with the (classical) first…
We investigate the effects of advection on the principal eigenvalues of linear time-periodic parabolic operators with zero Neumann boundary conditions. Various asymptotic behaviors of the principal eigenvalues, when advection coefficient approaches infinity, are established in heterogeneous environments, where spatial or temporal degeneracy could occur in the advection term. Our findings partially extend the existing results in Chen-Lou [2008 Indiana Univ. Math. J.] and Peng-Zhou [2018 Indiana Univ. Math. J.] for elliptic operators and those in Peng-Zhao [2015 Calc. Var. Partial Diff.] for par…
In this article, we study, as the coefficient $s\to\infty$, the asymptotic behavior of the principal eigenvalue of $$-φ''(x)-2sm'(x)φ'(x)+c(x)φ(x)=λ_sφ(x),\ \ 0<x<1,$$ supplemented by different boundary conditions. This problem is relevant to nonlinear propagation phenomena in reaction-diffusion equations. The main point is that the advection (or drift) term $m$ allows natural degeneracy. For instance, $m$ could be constant on $[a,b]\subset[0,1]$. Depending on the behavior of $m$ near the neighbourhood of the end points $a,\,b$, the limiting value could be the principal eigenvalue of $$-φ''(x)…
We investigate the effect of small diffusion on the principal eigenvalues of linear time-periodic parabolic operators with zero Neumann boundary conditions in one dimensional space. The asymptotic behaviors of the principal eigenvalues, as the diffusion coefficients tend to zero, are established for non-degenerate and degenerate spatial-temporally varying environments. A new finding is the dependence of these asymptotic behaviors on the periodic solutions of a specific ordinary differential equation induced by the drift. The proofs are based upon delicate constructions of super/sub-solutions a…
We prove sharp lower bound estimates for the first nonzero eigenvalue of the non-linear elliptic diffusion operator $L_p$ on a smooth metric measure space, without boundary or with a convex boundary and Neumann boundary condition, satisfying $BE(κ,N)$ for $κ\neq 0$. Our results extends the work of Koerber[5] for case $κ=0$ and Naber-Valtorta[10] for the $p$-Laplacian.
The principal eigenvalue for linear elliptic operator has been known to be one of very useful tools to investigate many important partial differential equations. Due to the pioneering works of Berestycki et al. \cite{BCV1,BCV2}, the study of qualitative properties for the principal eigenvalue of nonlocal operators has attracted a lot of attention of the community from theory to application (For examples \cite{LL22-1,LLS22,LZ1,LZ2,SLLY,DDF,XLR}). In this paper, motivated from the study of mathematical modeling the dynamics of infectious diseases in \cite{NV1, ZZLD, WD}, we analyze the asymptoti…
This paper classifies the set of supersolutions of a general class of periodic-parabolic problems in the presence of a positive supersolution. From this result we characterize the positivity of the underlying resolvent operator through the positivity of the associated principal eigenvalue and the existence of a positive strict supersolution. Lastly, this (scalar) characterization is used to characterize the strong maximum principle for a class of periodic-parabolic systems of cooperative type under arbitrary boundary conditions of mixed type.
Age-structured models with nonlocal diffusion arise naturally in describing the population dynamics of biological species and the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases in which individuals disperse nonlocally and interact each other and the age structure of individuals matters. In the first part of our series papers, we study the principal spectral theory of age-structured models with nonlocal diffusion of Dirichlet type. First, we provide two criteria on the existence of principal eigenvalues by using the theory of resolvent positive operators with their perturbations. Then we define t…
We prove that the principal eigenvalue of any fully nonlinear homogeneous elliptic operator which fulfills a very simple convexity assumption satisfies a Brunn-Minkowski type inequality on the class of open bounded sets in $\mathbb{R}^n$ satisfying a uniform exterior sphere condition. In particular the result applies to the (possibly normalized) $p$-Laplacian, and to the minimal Pucci operator. The proof is inspired by the approach introduced by Colesanti for the principal frequency of the Laplacian within the class of convex domains, and relies on a generalization of the convex envelope metho…
We apply new results on free boundary regularity of one-phase almost minimizers in periodic media to obtain a quantitative convergence rate for the shape optimizers of the first Dirichlet eigenvalue in periodic homogenization. We obtain a linear (with logarithmic factors) convergence rate for the optimizing eigenvalue. Large scale Lipschitz free boundary regularity of almost minimizers is used to apply the optimal $L^2$ homogenization theory in Lipschitz domains of Kenig, Lin and Shen. A key idea, to deal with the hard constraint on the volume, is a combination of a large scale almost dilation…
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…
For fully nonlinear $k$-Hessian operators on bounded strictly $(k-1)$-convex domains $Ω$ in ${\mathbb R}^N$, a characterization of the principal eigenvalue associated to a $k$-convex and negative principal eigenfunction will be given as the supremum over values of a spectral parameter for which admissible viscosity supersolutions obey a minimum principle. The admissibility condition is phrased in terms of the natural closed convex cone $Σ_k$ in the space of symmetric N by N matrices, which is an elliptic set in the sense of Krylov [Trans. AMS, 1995] and which corresponds to using $k$-convex fu…
We study the positive principal eigenvalue of a weighted problem associated with the Neumann spectral fractional Laplacian. This analysis is related to the investigation of the survival threshold in population dynamics. Our main result concerns the optimization of such threshold with respect to the fractional order $s\in(0,1]$, the case $s=1$ corresponding to the standard Neumann Laplacian: when the habitat is not too fragmented, the principal positive eigenvalue can not have local minima for $0<s<1$. As a consequence, the best strategy for survival is either following the diffusion with $s=1$…
In this paper we exploit the phenomenon of two principal half eigenvalues in the context of fully nonlinear Lane-Emden type systems with possibly unbounded coefficients and weights. We show that this gives rise to the existence of two principal spectral curves on the plane. We also construct a possible third spectral curve related to a second eigenvalue and an anti-maximum principle, which are novelties even for Lane-Emden systems involving linear operators. As applications, we derive a maximum principle in small domains for these systems, as well as existence and uniqueness of positive soluti…
Given an elliptic diffusion operator $L$ defined on a compact and connected manifold (possibly with a convex boundary in a suitable sense) with an $L$-invariant measure $m$, we introduce the non-linear $p-$operator $L_p$, generalizing the notion of the $p-$Laplacian. Using techniques of the intrinsic $Γ_2$-calculus, we prove the sharp estimate $λ\geq (p-1)π_p^p/D^p$ for the principal eigenvalue of $L_p$ with Neumann boundary conditions under the assumption that $L$ satisfies the curvature-dimension condition BE$(0,N)$ for some $N\in[1,\infty)$. Here, $D$ denotes the intrinsic diameter of $L$. …
We analyze the behavior of the eigenvalues of the following non local mixed problem $\left\{ \begin{array}{rcll} (-Δ)^{s} u &=& λ_1(D) \ u &\innΩ,\\ u&=&0&\inn D,\\ \mathcal{N}_{s}u&=&0&\inn N. \end{array}\right $ Our goal is to construct different sequences of problems by modifying the configuration of the sets $D$ and $N$, and to provide sufficient and necessary conditions on the size and the location of these sets in order to obtain sequences of eigenvalues that in the limit recover the eigenvalues of the Dirichlet or Neumann problem. We will see that the non locality plays a crucial role h…
We consider the Dirichlet Laplacian $A_q=-Δ+q$ in a bounded domain $Ω\subset \mathbb{R}^d$, $d \ge 3$, with real-valued perturbation $q \in L^{\max(2 , 3 d / 5)}(Ω)$. We examine the stability issue in the inverse problem of determining the electric potential $q$ from the asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues of $A_q$. Assuming that the boundary measurement of the normal derivative of the eigenfunctions is a square summable sequence in $L^2(\partial Ω)$, we prove that $q$ can be Hölder stably retrieved through knowledge of the asymptotics of the eigenvalues
Given a Schrödinger differential expression on an exterior Lipschitz domain we prove strict inequalities between the eigenvalues of the corresponding selfadjoint operators subject to Dirichlet and Neumann or Dirichlet and mixed boundary conditions, respectively. Moreover, we prove a strict inequality between the eigenvalues of two different elliptic differential operators on the same domain with Dirichlet boundary conditions.
We introduce several notions of generalised principal eigenvalue for a linear elliptic operator on a general unbounded domain, under boundary condition of the oblique derivative type. We employ these notions in the stability analysis of semilinear problems. Some of the properties we derive are new even in the Dirichlet or in the whole space cases. As an application, we show the validity of the hair-trigger effect for the Fisher-KPP equation on general, uniformly smooth domains.
