English

A sharp Gaussian harmonic-mean inequality for Neumann eigenvalues of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operator

Spectral Theory 2026-07-30 v1

Abstract

Let N2N\geq2 and let ΩRN\Omega\subset\R^N be a connected Lipschitz domain, possibly unbounded, symmetric with respect to the origin, and such that 0<\gammaN(Ω)<10<\gammaN(\Omega)<1. We assume that the Gaussian Sobolev embedding H1(Ω,\gammaN)L2(Ω,\gammaN)H^1(\Omega,\gammaN)\hookrightarrow L^2(\Omega,\gammaN) is compact; a sufficient condition is the existence of a bounded Gaussian Sobolev extension operator from Ω\Omega to RN\R^N. Denote by 0=μ0(Ω)<μ1(Ω)μ2(Ω) 0=\mu_0(\Omega)<\mu_1(\Omega)\leq\mu_2(\Omega)\leq\cdots the Neumann eigenvalues of the positive Ornstein--Uhlenbeck operator Δ+x-\Delta+x\cdot\nabla in Ω\Omega. We prove the sharp reciprocal-sum inequality k=1N1μk(Ω)Nμ1(BR), \sum_{k=1}^{N}\frac{1}{\mu_k(\Omega)} \geq \frac{N}{\mu_1(B_R)}, where BRB_R is the Euclidean ball centred at the origin and satisfying \gammaN(BR)=\gammaN(Ω)\gammaN(B_R)=\gammaN(\Omega). Equality holds if and only if Ω=BR\Omega=B_R. The proof combines a coupled NN-dimensional Ritz argument with a Gaussian raywise rearrangement. The angular imbalance is encoded by a symmetric trace-free matrix, whose contribution is controlled by a finite-dimensional convexity inequality.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.28328,
  title  = {A sharp Gaussian harmonic-mean inequality for Neumann eigenvalues of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck operator},
  author = {Francesco Chiacchio},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.28328},
  year   = {2026}
}