On the asymptotic behaviour of the restricted Dirichlet Laplacian of real order $s>0$ on stretching tubes

Abstract

We study spectral and variational properties of the (possibly) fractional Dirichlet Laplacian $\left(-\Delta_{n+k}\right)^s\!$, $s>0$, on bounded subsets of $\mathbb R^n\times\mathbb R^k$ whose extent in one or more directions becomes much larger than in the remaining ones. We first investigate the asymptotic behaviour of the first eigenvalue on stretching (or thinning) tubes, covering in particular the case of integers $s\geq 2$, for which $\left(-\Delta_{n+k}\right)^s\!$ reduces to a polyharmonic operator. Then we compute the $G$-limit of the rescaled operators, and the $\Gamma$-limit of the corresponding rescaled quadratic forms.