We consider the eigenvalue problem for the Laplacian with mixed Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. For a certain class of bounded, simply connected planar domains we prove monotonicity properties of the first eigenfunction. As a consequence, we establish a variant of the hot spots conjecture for mixed boundary conditions. Moreover, we obtain an inequality between the lowest eigenvalue of this mixed problem and the lowest eigenvalue of the corresponding dual problem where the Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions are interchanged. The proofs are based on a novel variational principle, which we establish.

We discuss Laplacian spectrum on a finite metric graph with vertex couplings violating the time-reversal invariance. For the class of star graphs, we determine, under the condition of a fixed total edge length, the configurations for which the ground state eigenvalue is maximized. Furthermore, for general finite metric graphs, we provide upper bounds for all eigenvalues.

We review a recent new approach to the study of critical points of Laplacian eigenfunctions. Its core novelty is a non-standard variational principle for the eigenvalues of the Laplacians with Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions on bounded, simply connected planar domains. This principle can be used to provide simple proofs of some previously known results on the hot spots conjecture.

We prove sharp upper bounds for the first and second non-trivial eigenvalues of the Neumann Laplacian in two classes of domains: parallelograms and domains of constant width. This gives in particular a new proof of an isoperimetric inequality for parallelograms recently obtained by A. Henrot, A. Lemenant and I. Lucardesi. 

Spectral properties of Schrödinger operators on compact metric graphs are studied, and special emphasis is put on differences in the spectral behavior between different classes of vertex conditions. We survey recent results especially for δ and δ′ couplings and demonstrate the spectral properties on many examples. Among other things, properties of the ground state eigenvalue and eigenfunction and the spectral behavior under various perturbations of the metric graph or the vertex conditions are considered.

The eigenvalue problem for the Laplacian on bounded, planar, convex domains with mixed boundary conditions is considered, where a Dirichlet boundary condition is imposed on a part of the boundary and a Neumann boundary condition on its complement. Given two different such choices of boundary conditions for the same domain, we prove inequalities between their lowest eigenvalues. As a special case, we prove parts of a conjecture on the order of mixed eigenvalues of triangles.

We study the inverse problem of recovering a tree graph together with the weights on its edges (equivalently a metric tree) from the knowledge of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann matrix associated with the Laplacian. We prove an explicit formula which relates this matrix to the pairwise weighted distances of the leaves of the tree and, thus, allows to recover the weighted tree. This result can be viewed as a counterpart of the Calderón problem in the analysis of PDEs. In contrast to earlier results on inverse problems for metric graphs, we only assume knowledge of the Dirichlet-to-Neumann matrix for a fixed energy, not of a whole matrix-valued function.

The isoperimetric problem of maximizing all eigenvalues of the Laplacian on a metric tree graph within the class of trees of a given average edge length is studied. It turns out that, up to rescaling, the unique maximizer of the k-th positive eigenvalue is the star graph with three edges of lengths 2⁢k−1, 1 and 1. This complements the previously known result that the first nonzero eigenvalue is maximized by all equilateral star graphs and indicates that optimizers of isoperimetric problems for higher eigenvalues may be less balanced in their shape—an observation which is known from numerical results on the optimization of higher eigenvalues of Laplacians on Euclidean domains.

Given a Schrödinger operator with a real-valued potential on a bounded, convex domain or a bounded interval we prove inequalities between the eigenvalues corresponding to Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions, respectively. The obtained inequalities depend partially on monotonicity and convexity properties of the potential. The results are counterparts of classical inequalities for the Laplacian but display some distinction between the one-dimensional case and higher dimensions.

We undertake a systematic investigation of the maxima and minima of the eigenfunctions associated with the first nontrivial eigenvalue of the Laplacian on a metric graph equipped with standard (continuity–Kirchhoff) vertex conditions. This is inspired by the famous hot spots conjecture for the Laplacian on a Euclidean domain, and the points on the graph where maxima and minima are achieved represent the generically "hottest" and "coldest" spots of the graph. We prove results on both the number and location of the hot spots of a metric graph, and also present a large number of examples, many of which run contrary to what one might naïvely expect. Amongst other results we prove the following: (i) generically, up to arbitrarily small perturbations of the graph, the points where minimum and maximum, respectively, are attained are unique; (ii) the minima and maxima can only be located at the vertices of degree one or inside the doubly connected part of the metric graph; and (iii) for any fixed graph topology, for some choices of edge lengths all minima and maxima will occur only at degree-one vertices, while for others they will only occur in the doubly connected part of the graph.