On the spectra of three Steklov eigenvalue problems on warped product manifolds (Q2117503)

The paper originates from a conjecture of \textit{J. F. Escobar} [J. Funct. Anal. 165, No. 1, 101--116 (1999; Zbl 0935.58015)] stating that the first eigenvalue of the Steklov problem on a manifold \(M\) with boundary \(\partial M\) \[ \begin{cases} \Delta\varphi=0, & \text{in }M,\\ \frac{\partial \varphi}{\partial \nu}=\sigma_k\varphi, & \text{on }\partial M, \end{cases} \] where the Ricci curvatures of both \(M\) and \(\partial M\) are bounded from below by a constant \(c>0\), satisfies \[ \sigma_1\ge c. \] Such a conjecture has been proved in some specific cases [\textit{J. F. Escobar}, J. Funct. Anal. 150, No. 2, 544--556 (1997; Zbl 0888.58066); \textit{Ó. A. Montaño Carreño}, Rev. Colomb. Mat. 47, No. 2, 181--190 (2013; Zbl 1348.35157)], while in general it is still an open problem. The author considers such an inequality for any Steklov eigenvalue on warped manifolds, where separation of variables allows to reduce the problem of finding bounds to the qualitative properties of specific ODE's. In particular, the author obtains sharp bounds for any eigenvalues in terms of the warped product metric, generalizing previous results. The same techniques allow here to treat also the case of negative Ricci curvature. The paper also contains a similar analysis for some biharmonic Steklov problems, where the dimension turns out to be a significant factor in the final bounds.