Universal Bounds for Traces of the Dirichlet Laplace Operator

We derive upper bounds for the trace of the heat kernel $Z(t)$ of the Dirichlet Laplace operator in an open set $\Omega \subset \R^d$, $d \geq 2$. In domains of finite volume the result improves an inequality of Kac. Using the same methods we give bounds on $Z(t)$ in domains of infinite volume. For domains of finite volume the bound on $Z(t)$ decays exponentially as $t$ tends to infinity and it contains the sharp first term and a correction term reflecting the properties of the short time asymptotics of $Z(t)$. To prove the result we employ refined Berezin-Li-Yau inequalities for eigenvalue means.