On the concentration-compactness phenomenon for the first Schrödinger eigenvalue (Q982214)

Let \(M\) be a closed (smooth) Riemannian surface of volume one with Laplace-Beltrami operator \(\Delta\). A potential on \(M\) is a function \(V\in L^{\infty}(M)\). The corresponding Schrödinger operator is the operator \(-\Delta+V\). Consider the space \(L^{\infty}_{0}(M)\) of potentials with zero mean-values. For \(V\in L^{\infty}_{0}(M)\), denote by \(\lambda_{0}(V)<\lambda_{1}(V)\leq\cdots\leq\lambda_{k}(V)\leq\cdots\) the eigenvalues of \(-\Delta+V\), and view the first eigenvalue \(\lambda_{1}(V)\) as a functional on the space \(L^{\infty}_{0}(M)\). The paper under review deals with critical points of \(\lambda_{1}\) on \(L^{\infty}_{0}(M)\). The first result proved is the following theorem. Theorem: Let \((V_{n})_{n\geq 1}\) be a sequence of \(\lambda_{1}\)-extremal potentials in \(L^{\infty}_{0}(M)\) for the Schrödinger operator \(-\Delta+V\). Then there exists a subsequence \((V_{n_{k}})\) such that one the following holds: {\parindent7mm \begin{itemize}\item[(i)] the subsequence \((V_{n_{k}})\) converges in the sense of distributions to \(8\pi(1-\delta_{x})\) for some \(x\in M\), and \(\lambda_{1}(V_{n_{k}})\rightarrow 8\pi\) as \(n_{k}\rightarrow +\infty\), \item[(ii)] the subsequence \((V_{n_{k}})\) converges in \(C^{\infty}\)-topology to a \(\lambda_{1}\)-extremal potential \(V\), and \(\lambda_{1}(V_{n_{k}})\rightarrow \lambda_{1}(V)>0\) as \(n_{k}\rightarrow +\infty\). \end{itemize}} The second result of the paper is a version of the previous theorem for the case of a variable metric on \(M\).