Log-Sobolev inequalities and regions with exterior exponential cusps. (Q1868684)

The investigation in this paper are motivated by recent results of \textit{V. I. Burenkov} and \textit{E. B. Davies} [J. Differ. Equations 186, 485--508 (2002; Zbl 1042.35035)] who studied the problem of stability of the spectrum of the Neumann Laplacian \(H_N\) when the region is approximated by another one and who gave some precise estimates for the spectrum in the case of Hölder boundaries based on ultracontractivity results for the semigroup \(e^{-H_Nt}\). Since the above ultracontractivity provides a well-behaved spectrum, the author's aim is to study the question how bad a domain can be and still possesses an ultracontractivity property. To investigate the contractivity, he uses a logarithmic Sobolev inequality, which he proves in some generalized form for arbitrary bounded domains (Theorem 2.3). The main result is that a domain may have an exponential cusp and that the associated semigroup is ultracontractive provided that the cusp is not too sharp (Section 4), and on the contrary, ultracontractivity breaks if the cusp is too sharp (Theorem 5.4).