Eigenfrequencies of isotropic fractal drums (Q4938494)

Let \(\Omega\) denote a smooth domain in \({\mathbb R}^2\) and \(\Gamma \) be a compact subset of \(\Omega\). A ``drum'' is a membrane stretched over \(\Omega\) with mass uniformly distributed over \(\Gamma\). Frequencies of such a drum are reciprocals of the eigenvalues \(\lambda_k\) of the (compact) operator \(B=(-\Delta)^{-1}\circ\text{ tr}^{\Gamma}\), where \(\Delta\) is the Laplace operator in \(\Omega\) with zero Dirichlet condition on \(\partial \Omega\) and \(\text{ tr}^{\Gamma}\) is a certain operator closely related to the trace operator \(\text{ tr}_\Gamma\) of \(\circ{W}_2^1(\Omega)\) on \(\Gamma\). The aim of the paper is the study of the spectral properties of the compact nonnegative operator \(B\) in the Sobolev space \(W_2^1(\Omega)\) where now the compact set \(\Gamma\) is, roughly speaking, an (isotropic) perturbed \(d\)-set in \({\mathbb R}^n\) in the following sense: there are a number \(d\) with \(n-2<d<n\), positive numbers \(c_l\) (\(l=1,2,3,4\)), a positive monotone function \(\Psi\) on \((0,1]\) with \[ c_1 \Psi (2^{-j})\leq \Psi (2^{-2j})\leq \Psi (2^{-j}) \] for any natural number \(j\), and a Radon measure \(\mu\) on \({\mathbb R}^n\) such that for all balls \(B(\gamma,r)\) in \({\mathbb R}^n\) with centre \(\gamma\in\Gamma\) and radius \(r\in(0,1), \text{ supp} \mu =\Gamma\) and \[ c_3r^d\Psi(r)\leq \mu (B(\gamma,r))\leq c_4r^d\Psi(r). \] In their main result the authors show that the positive eigenvalues \(\mu_k\) of \(B\), ordered by decreasing magnitude and repeated according to multiplicity, satisfy \[ \mu_k \sim k^{-1}(k\Psi(k^{-1}))^{(n-2)/d}. \] This is proved using a technique similar to that one developed in the monograph ``Fractals and spectra related to Fourier analysis and function spaces'' [Monographs in Mathematics, 91. Basel (1997; Zbl 0898.46030)] by the second named author. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0923.00035].