On the second eigenfunctions of the Laplacian in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 2\) (Q1099005)

An eigenfunction of the Laplacian \(\Delta\) is understood to be a solution \(\phi\) of the homogeneous Dirichlet problem \[ (\Delta +\lambda)\phi =0\quad in\quad \Omega;\quad \phi =0\quad in\quad \partial \Omega, \] where \(\Omega \subset {\mathbb{R}}^ 2\) is bounded and smooth and \(\lambda\) is the corresponding eigenvalue; the nodal set of \(\phi\) is the closure of \(\{\) \(x\in \Omega:\phi (x)=0\}\). A conjecturB50 93A15 The author considers two-level, partially decentralized control for a large-scale system with an interaction between the linear static subsystems and the quadratic performance index. The method used in the paper is based on that recently applied by the author [ibid. 41, 161-175 (1985; Zbl 0581.93004)] for solving an optimal resource allocation problem, where the so-called elastic constraint of the control is used for coordination. It is proved that the optimal control law of the coordinator fulfils the conventional certainty equivalence principle and the correction of the coordinator decision determined by the local controller is defined by the difference between the controls resulting from the solution of the separate subsystem problem with no interaction, for a decision-maker having the information of the local controller and coordinator, respectively. A simple numerical example enlightens theoretical considerations.