On the second eigenvalue of the Dirichlet Laplacian (Q1802750)

The author is concerned with the multiplicity of the second eigenvalue of the Dirichlet Laplacian. Let \(\Omega\) be a simply connected bounded submanifold with smooth boundary of an open Riemann surface \(M\). Let \(X\) be a smooth vector field defined in a neighborhood of \(\Omega\) and let \(X\) preserve the metric tensor \(g\) on \(M\), which means that \({\mathcal L}_ x g = 0\), where \({\mathcal L}_ X\) is the Lie derivative. Let \(\nu\) be the field of unit outward normal vectors to \(\partial \Omega\) and let both sets \(\Gamma^ \pm _ X = \{x \in \partial \Omega : \pm(X,\nu) (x) > 0\}\) be connected, and at least one of them not empty. The author proves that the second eigenvalue of the Laplacian in \(\Omega\) with Dirichlet's boundary conditions: \(\Delta u + \lambda u = 0\) in \(\Omega\), \(u = 0\) in \(\partial \Omega\), is of multiplicity at most 2. The proof is based on variational formulas for eigenvalues under the change of the domain.