English

Two disks maximize the third Robin eigenvalue: positive parameters

Spectral Theory 2025-01-28 v1

Abstract

The third eigenvalue of the Robin Laplacian on a simply-connected planar domain of given area is bounded above by the corresponding eigenvalue of a disjoint union of two equal disks, for Robin parameters in [4π,4π][-4\pi,4\pi]. This sharp inequality was known previously only for negative parameters in [4π,0][-4\pi,0], by Girouard and Laugesen. Their proof fails for positive Robin parameters because the second eigenfunction on a disk has non-monotonic radial part. This difficulty is overcome for parameters in (0,4π](0,4\pi] by means of a degree-theoretic approach suggested by Karpukhin and Stern that yields suitably orthogonal trial functions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.15029,
  title  = {Two disks maximize the third Robin eigenvalue: positive parameters},
  author = {Hanna N. Kim and Richard S. Laugesen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.15029},
  year   = {2025}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:17:14.403Z