The second eigenfunction of the Neumann Laplacian on convex, planar domains is considered. Inspired by the famous hot spots conjecture and a related result of Steinerberger, we show that potential critical points of this eigenfunction (and, in particular, interior “hot spots”) cannot be located “near the center” of the domain. The region in which critical points are excluded is described explicitly.

We prove a strong form of the hot spots conjecture for a class of domains in ℝd which are a natural generalization of the lip domains of Atar and Burdzy [J. Amer. Math. Soc. 17 (2004), pp. 243–265] in dimension two, as well as for a class of symmetric domains in ℝd generalizing the domains studied by Jerison and Nadirashvili [J. Amer. Math. Soc. 13 (2000), pp. 741–772]. Our method of proof is based on studying a vector-valued Laplace operator whose spectrum contains the spectrum of the Neumann Laplacian. This proof is essentially variational and does not require tools from stochastic analysis, nor does it use deformation arguments. In particular, it contains a new proof of the main result of Jerison and Nadirashvili.

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.

It has recently been conjectured by Bogosel, Henrot, and Michetti that the second positive eigenvalue of the Neumann Laplacian is maximized, among all planar convex domains of fixed perimeter, by the rectangle with one edge length equal to twice the other. In this note, we prove that this conjecture is true within the class of parallelogram domains.

We provide an upper estimate for the eigenvalues of the curl curl operator on a bounded, three-dimensional Euclidean domain in terms of eigenvalues of the Dirichlet Laplacian. The result complements recent inequalities between curl curl and Neumann Laplacian eigenvalues. The curl curl eigenvalues considered here correspond to the Maxwell eigenvalue problem with constant material parameters.

We generalize a classical inequality between the eigenvalues of the Laplacians with Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions on bounded, planar domains: in 1955, Payne proved that below the k-th eigenvalue of the Dirichlet Laplacian there exist at least k + 2 eigenvalues of the Neumann Laplacian, provided the domain is convex. It has, however, been conjectured that this should hold for any domain. Here we show that the statement indeed remains true for all simply connected planar Lipschitz domains.

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 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.