Mean curvature bounds and eigenvalues of Robin Laplacians (Q745576)

Let \(\Omega\) be a bounded domain in \(\mathbb{R}^m\) with \(C^3\) boundary. Let \(\partial_n\) be the outward unit normal on \(\Omega\). Let \(\lambda_k(\Omega,\alpha)\) be the \(k\)-th eigenvalue of the Laplacian with Robin boundary conditions \((\partial_n-\alpha)u|_{\partial\Omega}=0\). Let \(H\) be the maximum value of the mean curvature of the boundary of \(\Omega\). Fix \(k\). The authors show that \[ \lambda_k(\Omega,\alpha)=-\alpha^2-(m-1)H(\Omega)\alpha+\mathcal{O}(\alpha^{2/3}) \text{ as }\alpha\rightarrow\infty. \] (If the boundary is \(C^4\), then they show that the remainder estimate can be improved to \(\mathcal{O}(\alpha^{1/2})\)). The authors use this inequality to show that if \(\Omega\) is a bounded star shaped \(C^2\) domain, then \[ H(\Omega)\geq\left\{\frac{\text{Vol}(B_m)}{\text{Vol}(\Omega)}\right\}^{1/m} \] where \(B_m\) is the unit ball in \(\mathbb{R}^m\); furthermore, equality holds if and only if \(\Omega\) is a ball. The first section is an introduction to the subject and a statement of results. The second section deals with the asymptotics of the eigenvalues (Dirichlet-Neumann bracketing, change of variables, estimates of the metrics, analysis of the reduced operators and lower bound, construction of quasi-modes and the upper bound). The third section deals with estimates for the mean curvature (mean curvature and comparison of eigenvalues, local minimizers).