Spectral structure of the Neumann-Poincaré operator on thin ellipsoids and flat domains

Abstract

We investigate the spectral structure of the Neumann-Poincaré operator on thin ellipsoids. Two types of thin ellipsoids are considered: long prolate ellipsoids and flat oblate ellipsoids. We show that the totality of eigenvalues of the Neumann-Poincaré operators on a sequence of the prolate spheroids is densely distributed in the interval [0,1/2] as their eccentricities tend to 1, namely, as they become longer. We then prove that eigenvalues of the Neumann-Poincaré operators on the oblate ellipsoids are densely distributed in the interval [-1/2, 1/2] as the ellipsoids become flatter. In particular, this shows that even if there are at most finitely many negative eigenvalues on the oblate ellipsoids, more and more negative eigenvalues appear as the ellipsoids become flatter. We also show a similar spectral property for flat three dimensional domains.

24 pages, 1 figure