Two disks maximize the third Robin eigenvalue: positive parameters (Q6913753)

The authors prove that for any simply-connected bounded Lipschitz domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^2\) and any Robin parameter \(\alpha \in [-4\pi,4\pi]\) the third Robin eigenvalue \(\lambda_3(\Omega; \alpha/|\partial \Omega|)\) is bounded from above by \(\lambda_3(\Omega^*; \alpha/|\partial \Omega^*|)\), where \(\Omega^*\) is the union of two disjoint disks, each of which is of area \(|\Omega|/2\). Moreover, equality is attained asymptotically for the sequence of domains \((\mathbb{D} -1 + \varepsilon) \cup (\mathbb{D} +1 - \varepsilon)\) as \(\varepsilon \to 0\), where \(\mathbb{D}\) is the unit disk centered at the origin.\N\NThe result was proved in [\textit{A. Girouard} and \textit{R. S. Laugesen}, Indiana Univ. Math. J. 70, No. 6, 2711--2742 (2021; Zbl 1482.35144)] for \(\alpha \in [-4\pi,0]\), but the same construction of a test function space for \(\lambda_3\) cannot be directly applied for \(\alpha>0\). In the present work, the authors provide another construction of a test function space based on a degree-theoretic lemma from [\textit{M. Karpukhin} and \textit{D. Stern}, J. Eur. Math. Soc. (JEMS) 26, No. 11, 4071--4129 (2024; Zbl 1556.53070)]. To this end, efforts were made to verify a crucial reflection-symmetry hypothesis. Moreover, the authors also present an alternative proof of a variant of that degree-theoretic lemma from [\textit{H. N. Kim}, J. Spectr. Theory 15, No. 3, 963--993 (2025; Zbl 1573.35395)].