Eigenvalue estimates and differential form Laplacians on Alexandrov spaces (Q1659934)

In the mid 1970's, Cheng proved an upper bound for the \(k\)th positive eigenvalue, counted with multiplicity, of the non negative Laplacian for functions on a closed connected Riemannian manifold. In the paper under review, the author proves several extensions of Cheng's result to the case of a Laplacian on differential forms. More precisely, let \(M\) be an \(n\)-dimensional closed connected Riemannian manifold with diameter \(D\in\mathbb{R}^+\), sectional curvatures bounded below by \(K\in\mathbb{R}\) and volume bounded below by \(v\in\mathbb{R}^+\). Let \(\lambda_{k,p}\) denote the \(k\)th positive eigenvalue of the Hodge Laplacian \(dd^*+d^*d\) on \(p\)-forms, where \(p\in[0,n]\), counted with multiplicities. The first result can be stated as follows. There is a function \(\mathbf{C}_1:\mathbb{Z}^+\times\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}^+\rightarrow\mathbb{R}^+\) such that for all \(p\in[0,n]\): \[ \lambda_{k,p}\leq\mathbf{C}_1(n,KD^2,vD^{-n})\frac{k^{2/n}}{D^2} \] Using the notion of a strainer, the author proves a similar upper bound for \(\lambda_{k,p}\) when the lower volume bound is removed.