Polygons as maximizers of Dirichlet energy or first eigenvalue of Dirichlet-Laplacian among convex planar domains

TL;DR

This paper proves that solutions to certain shape optimization problems with convexity constraints in the plane are polygons, focusing on maximizing Dirichlet energy and first eigenvalue of the Laplacian, with new results on shape derivatives.

Contribution

It establishes a weak convexity property for Dirichlet energy and eigenvalues in convex planar shapes, enabling the proof that optimal shapes are polygons.

Findings

Optimal convex shapes for certain functionals are polygons.

New estimates of second order shape derivatives for non-smooth convex shapes.

Convexity constraints lead to polygonal maximizers in shape optimization problems.

Abstract

In this paper we prove that solutions to several shape optimization problems in the plane, with a convexity constraint on the admissible domains, are polygons. The main terms of the shape functionals we consider are either E f ($\Omega$), the Dirichlet energy of the Laplacian in the domain $\Omega$, or $\lambda$ 1 ($\Omega$), the first eigenvalue of the Dirichlet-Laplacian. Usually, one considers minimization of such functionals (often with measure constraint), as for example for the famous Saint-Venant and Faber-Krahn inequalities. By adding the convexity constraint (and possibly other constraints to ensure existence of an optimal shape) one allows to consider the rather unusual and difficult question of maximizing these functionals. This paper follows a series of papers by the authors, where the leading idea is that a certain concavity property of the shape functional that is minimized leads optimal shapes to locally saturate the convexity constraint, which geometrically means that they are polygonal. In these previous papers, the leading term in the shape functional usually was the opposite of the perimeter, for which the aforementioned concavity property was rather easy to obtain through computations of its second order shape derivative. By carrying classical shape calculus, a similar concavity property can be observed for the opposite of E f or $\lambda$ 1 , for shapes that are smooth and convex. The main novelty in the present paper is indeed the proof of a weak convexity property of E f and $\lambda$ 1 when it is only known that the shape is planar and convex, which means we have to consider rather non-smooth shapes. This work involves new computations and estimates of the second order shape derivative of E f and $\lambda$ 1 that are interesting in themselves.