Extremal metric for the first eigenvalue on a Klein bottle
Abstract
The first eigenvalue of the Laplacian on a surface can be viewed as a functional on the space of Riemannian metrics of a given area. Critical points of this functional are called extremal metrics. The only known extremal metrics are a round sphere, a standard projective plane, a Clifford torus and an equilateral torus. We construct an extremal metric on a Klein bottle. It is a metric of revolution, admitting a minimal isometric embedding into a 4-sphere by the first eigenfunctions. Also, this Klein bottle is a bipolar surface for the Lawson's {3,1}-torus. We conjecture that an extremal metric for the first eigenvalue on a Klein bottle is unique, and hence it provides a sharp upper bound for the first eigenvalue on a Klein bottle of a given area. We present numerical evidence and prove the first results towards this conjecture.
Cite
@article{arxiv.math/0311484,
title = {Extremal metric for the first eigenvalue on a Klein bottle},
author = {Dmitry Jakobson and Nikolai Nadirashvili and Iosif Polterovich},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0311484},
year = {2007}
}
Comments
20 pages; minor corrections