A second proof of the Payne-Pólya-Weinberger conjecture (Q1200480)

Following \textit{M. Abramovitz} and \textit{I. A. Stegun} [Handbook of mathematical functions (1964; Zbl 0171.385)] the authors denote by \(j_{p,1}\) the first positive zero of the Bessel function \(J_ p(x)\), and let \(p=n/2-1\geq 0\), \(w(x)=J_{p+1}(j_{p+1,1}x)/J_ p(j_{p,1}x)\), \(x\in[0,1]\); \(B(x)=[w'(x)]^ 2+(2p+1)[w(x)]^ 2/x^ 2\), \(q(x)=xw'(x)/w(x)\). Using the Riccati differential equation for \(q(x)\) and the Rayleigh-Ritz variational principle they prove the main result (Theorem 5): With notation and hypothesis as above, for \(x\in[0,1]\), \(0\leq q\leq 1\) and \(q'\leq 0\), and hence \(w\) is an increasing function there while \(B\) is decreasing. Using another method the authors obtained this result earlier [Bull. Am. Math. Soc. 25, 19-29 (1991; Zbl 0736.35075) and Ann. Math. 135, 601-628 (1992)] and applied it to prove the so-called Payne-Polya-Weinberger conjecture as follows: The ratio of the first two Dirichlet eigenvalues \(\lambda_ 1\) and \(\lambda_ 1\) of Laplacian on a domain \(\Omega\in R^ n\) is maximal for the sphere and it is equal to the ratio of \(j^ 2_{p+1,1}\) and \(j^ 2_{p,1}\). They indicate that the new proofs of two key properties of the functions \(w(x)\) and \(B(x)\) admit generalizations to other related problems.