A Sharp Bound for the Ratio of the First Two Dirichlet Eigenvalues of a Domain in a Hemisphere of S^n

Abstract

For a domain $\Omega$ contained in a hemisphere of the $n$-dimensional sphere $\SS^n$ we prove the optimal result ${\lambda }_2/{\lambda }_1(\Omega )\le {\lambda }_2/{\lambda }_1({\Omega }^{\star })$ for the ratio of its first two Dirichlet eigenvalues where ${\Omega }^{\star }$, the symmetric rearrangement of $\Omega$ in $\SS^n$, is a geodesic ball in $\SS^n$ having the same $n$-volume as $\Omega$. We also show that ${\lambda }_2/{\lambda }_1$ for geodesic balls of geodesic radius ${\theta }_1$ less than or equal to $\pi /2$ is an increasing function of ${\theta }_1$ which runs between the value $(j_{n/2,1}/j_{n/2-1,1}{)}^2$ for ${\theta }_1=0$ (this is the Euclidean value) and $2(n+1)/n$ for ${\theta }_1=\pi /2$. Here $j_{\nu ,k}$ denotes the $k^{th}$ positive zero of the Bessel function $J_{\nu }(t)$. This result generalizes the Payne-Pólya-Weinberger conjecture, which applies to bounded domains in Euclidean space and which we had proved earlier. Our method makes use of symmetric rearrangement of functions and various technical properties of special functions. We also prove that among all domains contained in a hemisphere of $\SS^n$ and having a fixed value of ${\lambda }_1$ the one with the maximal value of ${\lambda }_2$ is the geodesic ball of the appropriate radius. This is a stronger, but slightly less accessible, isoperimetric result than that for ${\lambda }_2/{\lambda }_1$. Various other results for ${\lambda }_1$ and ${\lambda }_2$ of geodesic balls in $\SS^n$ are proved in the course of our work.

37 pages. This paper is to appear in the Trans. Amer. Math. Soc

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