The lower and upper bounds of the first eigenvalues for the bi-harmonic operator on manifolds (Q2517086)

The question of finding upper and lower bounds on eigenvalues of various operators on manifolds has a long history, and the paper under review contributes to this story in the context of the bi-harmonic operator. The new bounds are for the first eigenvalue of the buckling and clamped plate problems on a compact connected Riemannian manifold \(\Omega\) with smooth boundary. The lower bounds are in the spirit of Faber-Krahn inequalities of \(\nu\)-Euclidean type (see p. 166 of [\textit{I. Chavel}, Isoperimetric inequalities. Differential geometric and analytic perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2001; Zbl 0988.51019)]), where \(\nu\) is at least as big as the dimension of \(\Omega\). These bounds involve the volume, the \(\nu\)-isoperimetric constant, and a lower bound on the Ricci curvature of \(\Omega\); for the first eigenvalue of the clamped plate problem, the first eigenvalue \(\lambda_1\) of the Dirichlet eigenvalue problem on \(\Omega\) also appears in the bound. To prove these lower bounds, the author uses the Federer-Fleming theorem and the Reilly formula in crucial ways. The bounds are explicitly computed in the case of domains in the unit ball and unit sphere. The upper bounds are in terms of the dimension of \(\Omega\), a lower bound on the Ricci curvature of \(\Omega\), and \(\lambda_1\). The Bochner-Weitzenböck formula plays a key role in deriving the upper bounds. Note that the first part of the proof that the bounds are strict is for the first eigenvalue \(\Lambda_1\) of the buckling problem, not for the first eigenvalue \(\Gamma_1\) of the clamped plate problem as written.