Estimates for the first eigenvalues of the affine Laplacian (Q6110326)

Let \((M^n,\overline{g},\exp(u))\) be an \(n\)-dimensional Riemannian triple with \(u\in C^\infty(M^n)\). A two-parameter family of affine connections is defined as \[ D_X^{\alpha,\gamma}Y=\overline{\nabla}_XY+\alpha du(X)Y+\alpha du(Y)X+\gamma\overline{g}(X,Y)\overline{\nabla}u, \] where \(\alpha,\gamma\) are real numbers and \(X,Y\) are vector fields on \(M^n\), and \(\overline{\nabla}\) is the Levi-Civita connection of \(\overline{g}\). The Laplacian operator w.r.t. \(D=D^{\alpha,\gamma}\) is given by \[ \overline{\Delta}^Df=\exp((\gamma-\alpha)u)(\Delta_{M^n}+(2\gamma+n\alpha)\langle\overline{\nabla}u,\overline{\nabla}f\rangle),\text{ for }f\in C^\infty(M^n). \] The purpose of the authors is to look for upper bounds associated to the first eigenvalue of \(((\overline{\Delta})^D)^2\), the bi-affine Laplacian operator (Theorems 1.1 and 1.2).