Counting nodal domains in Riemannian manifolds (Q2249603)

Let \(D\) be a relatively compact domain in a complete Riemannian manifold. The Laplacian \(\Delta\), when acting on \(L^2(D)\) with Dirichlet boundary conditions, has a sequence of eigenvalues \(-\lambda_k\) with corresponding eigenfunctions \(\varphi_k\). The nodal domains of \(\varphi_k\) are by definition the connected components of the complement of its zero set in \(D\). In [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 15, 513--541 (1982; Zbl 0527.35020)], \textit{P. Bérard} and \textit{D. Meyer} proved that for the number \(N(k)\) of nodal domains of \(\varphi_k\) it holds \[ \overline{\lim_{k\rightarrow\infty}}\, \frac{N(k)}{k}\leq\gamma(n)<1\,, \] where \(\gamma(n)\) is a specific constant depending on the dimension \(n\geq 2\) of the manifold. The author mainly improves this result by showing that \[ \overline{\lim_{k\rightarrow\infty}}\,\frac{N(k)}{k}\leq \gamma(n)-\epsilon(n)\,, \] where \(\epsilon(n)\) is positive.