Eigenvalue gaps for the Cauchy process and a Poincaré inequality

Abstract

A connection between the semigroup of the Cauchy process killed upon exiting a domain $D$ and a mixed boundary value problem for the Laplacian in one dimension higher known as the "mixed Steklov problem," was established in a previous paper of the authors. From this, a variational characterization for the eigenvalues $λ_n$, $n\geq 1$, of the Cauchy process in $D$ was obtained. In this paper we obtain a variational characterization of the difference between $λ_n$ and $λ_1$. We study bounded convex domains which are symmetric with respect to one of the coordinate axis and obtain lower bound estimates for $λ_* - λ_1$ where $λ_*$ is the eigenvalue corresponding to the "first" antisymmetric eigenfunction for $D$. The proof is based on a variational characterization of $λ_* - λ_1$ and on a weighted Poincaré--type inequality. The Poincaré inequality is valid for all $α$ symmetric stable processes, $0<α\leq 2$, and any other process obtained from Brownian motion by subordination. We also prove upper bound estimates for the spectral gap $λ_2-λ_1$ in bounded convex domains.