On the spectrum of the Page and the Chen-LeBrun-Weber metrics (Q2249606)

The authors consider the Page metric \(g_P\) on \(\mathbb{CP}^2\#\overline{\mathbb{CP}^2}\) and the Chen-LeBrun-Weber metric \(g_{\mathrm{CLW}}\) on \(\mathbb{CP}^2\#\overline{\mathbb{CP}^2}\#\overline{\mathbb{CP}^2}\). They present bounds for the first non-zero eigenvalue of the scalar Laplacian in this setting. These bounds are obtained without explicit knowledge of the metrics involved and do not use numerical approximation. The method of the paper also goes to estimate the invariant part of the spectrum for both of these metrics. Let \(\Lambda\) be the Einstein constant so \(\text{Ric}=\Lambda g\). Let \(\lambda_1(g)\) be the first non-zero eigenvalue of the scalar Laplacian. The following estimates are obtained: \[ \textstyle\frac43\Lambda\leq\lambda_1(g_P)\leq1.89\Lambda\text{ and } \textstyle\frac43\Lambda\leq\lambda_1(G_{\mathrm{CLW}})\leq2.11\Lambda\,. \] The lower bound of \(\frac43\Lambda\) is the Lichnerowicz-Obata lower bound; the upper bound is the main contribution of the paper. Numerical evidence is given to suggest that the bounds are extremely close to the actual eigenvalue. It is shown that the Page metric is linearly unstable and can be destabilized by conformal perturbations.