Optimisation of the lowest Robin eigenvalue in the exterior of a compact set

Abstract

We consider the problem of geometric optimisation of the lowest eigenvalue of the Laplacian in the exterior of a compact planar set, subject to attractive Robin boundary conditions. Under either a constraint of fixed perimeter or area, we show that the maximiser within the class of exteriors of convex sets is always the exterior of a disk. We also argue why the results fail without the convexity constraint and in higher dimensions.

arXiv comment13 pages; counterexample in Section 5.3 corrected; to appear in Journal of Convex Analysis