Singular analysis of the optimizers of the principal eigenvalue in indefinite weighted Neumann problems

TL;DR

This paper investigates the behavior of the principal eigenvalue and eigenfunction in weighted Neumann problems with sign-changing weights, especially as the measure of the super-level set diminishes, revealing boundary and connectedness properties.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the structure and boundary behavior of optimal eigenfunctions and their super-level sets in indefinite weighted Neumann problems, especially in the singular limit.

Findings

Eigenfunction has a unique boundary maximum point for small super-level set measure.

Super-level set D is connected and intersects the domain boundary.

Boundary measure of D relates to its volume via a universal constant.

Abstract

We study the minimization of the positive principal eigenvalue associated to a weighted Neumann problem settled in a bounded smooth domain $\Omega\subset \mathbb{R}^{N}$, within a suitable class of sign-changing weights. Denoting with $u$ the optimal eigenfunction and with $D$ its super-level set associated to the optimal weight, we perform the analysis of the singular limit of the optimal eigenvalue as the measure of $D $ tends to zero. We show that, when the measure of $D$ is sufficiently small, $u $ has a unique local maximum point lying on the boundary of $\Omega$ and $D$ is connected. Furthermore, the boundary of $D$ intersects the boundary of the box $\Omega$, and more precisely, ${\mathcal H}^{N-1}(\partial D \cap \partial \Omega)\ge C|D|^{(N-1)/N} $ for some universal constant $C>0$. Though widely expected, these properties are still unknown if the measure of $D$ is arbitrary.