Payne-Polya-Weinberger type inequalities for eigenvalues of nonelliptic operators. (Q1880021)

The authors establish upper estimates, independent of the domain, for the gaps of eigenvalues for the following problem: \[ (-\Delta_{H_n})^k u=\lambda u\text{ in }\Omega,\quad \frac{\partial^{j-1} u}{\partial \nu^{j-1}} =0\text{ on } \partial\Omega,\quad 0\leq j\leq k-1,\;k\geq 1. \] Here \(\Omega\) is a bounded domain in the Heisenberg group \(H_n\) with smooth boundary \(\partial\Omega,\nu\) is the unit outward normal to \(\partial\Omega\), \[ \Delta_{H_n}=\sum_{1\leq j\leq n} (X^2_j+ Y_j^2)\qquad \biggl(X_j=\frac {\partial}{\partial x_j}+\frac{y_j}{2}\frac {\partial}{\partial t},Y_j=\frac{\partial} {\partial y_j}-\frac {x_j}{2} \frac{\partial} {\partial t}\biggr) \] denotes the real Kohn Laplacian in \(H_n\). In particular, if \(k=1\), the authors generalize some theorems of Payne-Polya-Weinberger and Hill-Protter for Dirichlet eigenvalues of the Euclidean Laplacian. The proofs are based on some identities and inequalities for noncommutative vector fields. They also consider the eigenvalues of generalized Baouendi-Grushin operators \[ L=\sum_{1\leq i\leq M}X^2_i+ \sum_{1\leq j\leq N}Y^2_j, \;X_i=\frac{\partial}{\partial x_i}, \;Y_j= | x|^\alpha\frac {\partial} {\partial y_j}, \;\alpha\geq 1,\;M+N= n, \] but in this case the estimate depends on the domain.