Unimodal value distribution of Laplace eigenfunctions and a monotonicity formula (Q2196637)

The author focuses on a compact, connected Riemannian manifold \(M\) with its Riemannian volume measure \(\sigma\), \(f:M \rightarrow \mathbb R\) a non-constant eigenfunction of the Laplacian, the measure \(\mu\) whose density with respect to \(\sigma\) is \(|\bigtriangledown f|^2\). Then the value distribution density of \(f\) under \(\mu\) is continuous and unimodal with a maximum at zero. (The zero set of an eigenfunction is the largest of all level sets (Theorem 1.1).) When \(M\) is a manifold with boundary the same holds for Laplace eigenfunctions satisfying the Dirichlet or Neuman boundary conditions. ``In each of these two cases the value distribution density of the function \(f\) under \(\mu\) is strictly increasing in \([\text{inf}(f), 0]\) and strictly decreasing in $[0, \sup(f)]$'' (Theorem 1.2). As an example, the author applies this result in the case of an eigenfunction corresponding to the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian with Dirichlet boundary conditions. A monotonicity formula for level sets of solid spherical harmonics is also proved (viewing nodal sets of harmonic functions as weighted minimal hypersurfaces).