An upper bound for the first eigenvalue of a spherical cap (Q1334926)

\textit{G. A. Cámera} [On a Sturm-Liouville problem, Appl. Math. Optimization 30, 159-169 (1994)] gave a lower bound for the first eigenvalue \(\lambda_ 1 (\theta_ 0)\) of the eigenvalue problem \[ -(u' \sin^ \alpha \theta)' = \lambda u \sin^ \alpha \theta, \quad u (\theta_ 0) = 0, \quad \int^{\theta_ 0}_ 0 u^ 2 \sin^ \alpha \theta d \theta < \infty, \] where \(\alpha>1\) and \(\theta_ 0 \in (0,\pi)\). In the present note an upper bound is given, \[ \lambda_ 1 (\theta_ 0)^ 2 \leq \int^{\theta_ 0}_ 0 \sin^ \alpha \theta d \theta \left( \int^{\theta_ 0}_ 0 g^ 2_{\theta_ 0} (\theta) \sin^ \alpha \theta d \theta \right)^{-1}, \] where \(g_{\theta_ 0} (\theta) = \int^{\theta_ 0}_ \theta {d \psi \over \sin^ \alpha \psi} \int^ \psi_ 0 \sin^ \alpha \varphi d \varphi\). From the upper and lower bounds, the limit relations \[ \begin{aligned} & \lim_{\theta_ 0 \to \pi} \lambda_ 1 (\theta_ 0) \log {1 \over \pi - \theta_ 0}={1\over 2} (\alpha=1),\\ & \lim_{\theta_ 0\to\pi}\lambda_ 1(\theta_ 0)(\pi-\theta_ 0)^{1-\alpha} = (\alpha - 1) \left( \int^{\theta_ 0}_ 0 \sin^ \alpha \theta d \theta \right)^{-1} (\alpha=1), \end{aligned} \] are obtained.