On the second eigenvalue of the Laplacian in an annulus (Q938627)

Motivated by a conjecture of Payne on nodal sets (the zeroes of the eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator), the author shows that the multiplicity of the second eigenvalue of both Dirichlet and Neumann Laplacians on an annulus is equal to \(n\), provided that the annulus is contained in one of the following \(n\) dimensional manifolds: the Euclidean space, a sphere or a hyperbolic space.