English

Pleijel's nodal domain theorem for Neumann and Robin eigenfunctions

Analysis of PDEs 2016-12-15 v2 Spectral Theory

Abstract

In this paper, we show that equality in Courant's nodal domain theorem can only be reached for a finite number of eigenvalues of the Neumann Laplacian, in the case of an open, bounded and connected set in R n with a C 1,1 boundary. This result is analogous to Pleijel's nodal domain theorem for the Dirichlet Laplacian (1956). It confirms, in all dimensions, a conjecture formulated by Pleijel, which had already been solved by I. Polterovich for a two-dimensional domain with a piecewise-analytic boundary (2009). We also show that the argument and the result extend to a class of Robin boundary conditions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1609.02331,
  title  = {Pleijel's nodal domain theorem for Neumann and Robin eigenfunctions},
  author = {Corentin Léna},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.02331},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

New version: additional section treating a class of Robin boundary conditions; revision of Section 2.5; additional minor corrections

R2 v1 2026-06-22T15:43:43.418Z