The interior transmission problem and bounds on transmission eigenvalues (Q2428792)

The authors study the location of eigenvalues \(\lambda\in {\mathbb C}\) of the \textit{interior transmission problem} \[ \begin{cases} (-\Delta-\lambda)v=0\;\text{in}\;\Omega,\\ (-\Delta-\lambda(1+m))w=0\;\text{in}\;\Omega,\\ v-w\in H_0^2(\Omega), \end{cases}\tag{1} \] on a smooth, bounded domain \(\Omega\subset{\mathbb R}^n\), where \(m\in C^\infty(\overline{\Omega})\) is a positive perturbation and \(H^2_0(\Omega)\) is the standard Sobolev space. The main result of the paper states that all but finitely many transmission eigenvalues are located in a parabolic neighborhood about the positive real axis. More precisely, there exist constants \(0 < \delta < 1\) and \(C > 1\) such that all eigenvalues \(\lambda\in {\mathbb C}\) of (1) with \(|\lambda| > C\) satisfy \(\text{Re} \lambda > 0\) and \(|\text{Im} \lambda| \leq C|\lambda|^{1-\delta}\). It follows from the proof that it is possible to take \(\delta=1/25\). The proof is carried out in several steps. First, the problem (1) is reformulated as an elliptic boundary value problem for a quadratic pencil operator, whose invertibility is now the question of interest. The second step in the proof is a reduction to a family of semiclassical boundary value problems. The proof of the invertibility of the resulting family of operators is based on the theory of pseudodifferential operators.