Isoperimetric control of the Steklov spectrum (Q549662)

This paper provides a number of results -- using the geometry and topology of a Riemannian manifold -- to bound the normalized Steklov eigenvalues of a bounded domain in the manifold. The Steklov eigenvalues of a bounded domain are the eigenvalues of an associated pseudodifferential operator called the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map. Given a smooth map \(f\) on the (smooth) boundary of the domain, the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map takes the outward normal derivative of the harmonic extension of \(f\) to the interior of the domain. The spectrum of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann map was first studied by Steklov in 1902 and has applications to the physics of fluids, heat and vibrations. Because Steklov eigenvalues are not invariant under metric scaling, a normalization of the Steklov spectrum is used in this paper. As described in the abstract of the paper, the authors show that ``the normalized Steklov eigenvalues of a bounded domain in a complete Riemannian manifold are bounded above in terms of the inverse of the isoperimetric ratio of the domain.'' In addition, for compact surfaces with boundary, uniform upper bounds based on the genus are given for these eigenvalues. Finally the authors relate the Steklov spectrum of a domain with the Laplace-Beltrami spectrum of its boundary. The main theorem of the paper (Theorem 2.2) is proven in the setting of a more general Steklov eigenvalue problem. The eigenvalues of this problem are controlled through a mini-max argument relying on methods introduced by \textit{A. Grigorýan, Y. Netrusov} and \textit{S.-T. Yau} [Surv. Differ.l Geom. 9, 147--217 (2004; Zbl 1061.58027)].