English

Mirror couplings and Neumann eigenfunctions

Probability 2016-09-07 v1

Abstract

We analyze a pair of reflected Brownian motions in a planar domain DD, for which the increments of both processes form mirror images of each other when the processes are not on the boundary. We show that for DD in a class of smooth convex planar domains, the two processes remain ordered forever, according to a certain partial order. This is used to prove that the second eigenvalue is simple for the Laplacian with Neumann boundary conditions for the same class of domains.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.math/0607400,
  title  = {Mirror couplings and Neumann eigenfunctions},
  author = {Rami Atar and Krzysztof Burdzy},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0607400},
  year   = {2016}
}

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37 pages