Inequalities between the lowest eigenvalues of Laplacians with mixed boundary conditions

Abstract

The eigenvalue problem for the Laplacian on bounded, planar, convex domains with mixed boundary conditions is considered, where a Dirichlet boundary condition is imposed on a part of the boundary and a Neumann boundary condition on its complement. Given two different such choices of boundary conditions for the same domain, we prove inequalities between their lowest eigenvalues. As a special case, we prove parts of a conjecture on the order of mixed eigenvalues of triangles.