On the nodal lines of second eigenfunctions of the fixed membrane problem (Q917773)

On a bounded domain \(\Omega \subset {\mathbb{R}}^ 2\) of class \(C^{2,\alpha}\), second Dirichlet eigenfunctions \(u_ 2\) of the Laplacian are considered. If \(\Omega\) is symmetric about the axis \(\{x_ 2=0\}\) and convex with respect to a point p on this axis, \(p\not\in \Omega\), then it is proved that the closure of the nodal set of \(u_ 2\), \(N(u_ 2):=\{x\in \Omega :\) \(u(x)=0\}\), intersects \(\partial \Omega\) at exactly two points. Here, convexity with respect to a point p means that for every circle (centered at p) the intersection \(C\cap \Omega\) is either empty or connected. If \(\Omega\) is symmetric with respect to both coordinate axes, then sufficient conditions on \(\Omega\) are given for \(\lambda_ 2\) to be simple and for \(N(u_ 2)=\Omega \cap \{x_ 1=0\}\). These conditions are: \(\Omega\) is convex with respect to \(x_ 1\), not a circular disc and expends from \(T_ 1:=\{x_ 1=0\}\) to \(T_ 2:=\{x_ 2=0\}\). The last condition means that in the first quadrant, \(\partial \Omega\) is a curve from \(T_ 1\) to \(T_ 2\) of increasing distance from the origin.