Conformal upper bounds for the eigenvalues of the Laplacian and Steklov problem (Q647621)

Let \((M,g)\) be a compact orientable Riemannian manifold of dimension \(m\) and let \(\mathrm{Spec}(M,g)=\{\lambda_k(M,g)\}\) denote the spectrum of the Laplacian where each eigenvalue is repeated according to multiplicity and the eigenvalues are ordered in non-decreasing order. Let \(\mathrm{vol}(M,g)\) denote the Riemannian volume. The author defines a conformal invariant \(V[g]\), called the min-conformal volume of the manifold, and establishes the following estimate: Theorem 1.1: There exist for every integer \(m\geq2\), two constants \(A_m\) and \(B_m\) such that for every compact Riemannian manifold \((M,g)\) of dimension \(m\) and every non-negative integer \(k\), the following estimate holds: \[ \lambda_k(M,g)\mathrm{vol}(M,g)^{2/m}\leq A_mV([g])^{2/m}+B_mk^{2/m}\,. \] Note that if \(g\) is conformally equivalent to a metric \(g_0\) of non-negative Ricci curvature, then \(V([g])=0\) and thus one recovers the estimate due to \textit{N. Korevaar} [J. Differ. Geom. 37, No. 1, 73--93 (1993; Zbl 0794.58045)] in this setting: \[ \lambda_k(M,g)\mathrm{vol}(M)^{2/m}\leq B_mk^{2/m}\,. \] A number of similar results are derived in this context. The main technical tool of the proof consists of constructing a suitable family of capacitors. A discussion of the Steklov eigenvalue problem is given at the end of the paper and manifolds with boundary are treated as well using suitable boundary conditions.