Dirichlet eigenfunctions on the cube, sharpening the Courant nodal inequality

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the refine analysis of Courant's theorem for the Dirichlet Laplacian. Many papers (and some of them quite recent) have investigated in which cases this inequality in Courant's theorem is an equality: Pleijel, Helffer--Hoffmann-Ostenhof--Terracini, Helffer--Hoffmann-Ostenhof, B\'erard-Helffer, Helffer--Persson-Sundqvist, L\'ena, Leydold. All these results were devoted to $(2D)$-cases in open sets in $\mathbb R^2$ or in surfaces like $\mathbb S^2$ or $\mathbb T^2$. The aim of the current paper is to look for analogous results for domains in $\mathbb{R}^3$ and, as $\AA.$Pleijel was suggesting in his 1956 founding paper, for the simplest case of the cube. More precisely, we will prove that the only eigenvalues of the Dirichlet Laplacian which are Courant sharp are the two first eigenvalues.