Log-Concavity and Fundamental Gaps on Surfaces of Positive Curvature

Abstract

We study the log-concavity of the first Dirichlet eigenfunction of the Laplacian for convex domains. For positively curved surfaces satisfying a condition involving the curvature and its second derivatives, we show that the first eigenfunction is strongly log-concave. Previously, for general convex domains, the log-concavity of the first eigenfunctions were only known when lying in ${\mathbb{R}}^n$ and ${\mathbb{S}}^n$. Using this estimate, we establish lower bounds on the fundamental gap of such regions. Furthermore, we study the behavior of these estimates under Ricci flow and other deformations of the metric.

14 pages. To appear in Communications in Analysis and Geometry