Linear stability implies nonlinear stability for Faber-Krahn-type inequalities (Q6166035)

Summary: For a domain \(\Omega\subseteq \mathbb{R}^n\) and a small number \(\mathfrak{T} > 0\), let \[ \mathcal{E}_0 (\Omega) = \lambda_1 (\Omega) + \mathfrak{T}\, \mathrm{tor}(\Omega) =\inf_{u,w \in H^1_0 (\Omega)\setminus \{ 0\}} \frac{\int |\nabla u|^2}{\int u^2} +\mathfrak{T} \int \frac{1}{2} |\nabla w|^2 -w \] be a modification of the first Dirichlet eigenvalue of \(\Omega\). It is well known that over all \(\Omega\) with a given volume, the only sets attaining the infimum of \(\mathcal{E}_0\) are balls \(B_R\); this is the Faber-Krahn inequality. The main result of this paper is that, if for all \(\Omega\) with the same volume and barycenter as \(B_R\) whose boundaries are parametrized as small \(C^2\) normal graphs over \(\partial B_R\) with bounded \(C^2\) norm \[ \int |u_{\Omega} - u_{B_R}|^2 + |\Omega \triangle B_R |^2 \leq C|\mathcal{E}_0 (\Omega)-\mathcal{E}_0 (B_R)] \] (i.e., the Faber-Krahn inequality is \textit{linearly stable}), then the same is true for \textit{any} \(\Omega\) with the same volume and barycenter as \(B_R\) without any smoothness assumptions (i.e., it is \textit{nonlinearly stable}). Here \(u_{\Omega}\) stands for an \(L^2\) normalized first Dirichlet eigenfunction of \(\Omega\). Related results are shown for Riemannian manifolds. The proof is based on a detailed analysis of some critical perturbations of Bernoulli-type free boundary problems. The topic of when linear stability is valid, as well as some applications, are considered in a companion paper.