Spectral gaps and rates to equilibrium for diffusions in convex domains (Q1916875)

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how geometric quantities, such as inner radius and diameter, influence the gap between the first two eigenvalues for Schrödinger operators subject to Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions for domains in Euclidean space. Let \(-\Delta u+ Vu= \lambda u\) in \(\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^n\), \(u= 0\) on \(\partial\Omega\), \(V\) is a smooth, nonnegative, convex potential. The author proves that \(\lambda_2- \lambda_1> \pi^2/d^2\) for all convex domains of diameter \(d\). If \(-\Delta u= \mu u\) in \(\Omega\), \(\partial u/\partial n= 0\) on \(\partial\Omega\), then \(0= \mu_1< \mu_2\leq \mu_3\leq\cdots\). The author proves that \(\mu_2\leq c/d^2\), where \(c\) is a universal constant. Then \(\pi^2/d^2\leq \mu_2\leq c/d^2\). The author investigates also the Robin boundary problem \(-\Delta u= \lambda u\) (in \(\Omega\)), \(\partial u/\partial n+ \alpha u= 0\) on \(\partial\Omega\) \((0< \alpha< \infty)\).