Location of the nodal set for thin curved tubes

Abstract

The Dirichlet Laplacian in curved tubes of arbitrary constant cross-section rotating together with the Tang frame along a bounded curve in Euclidean spaces of arbitrary dimension is investigated in the limit when the volume of the cross-section diminishes. We show that spectral properties of the Laplacian are, in this limit, approximated well by those of the sum of the Dirichlet Laplacian in the cross-section and a one-dimensional Schrodinger operator whose potential is expressed solely in terms of the first curvature of the reference curve. In particular, we establish the convergence of eigenvalues, the uniform convergence of eigenfunctions and locate the nodal set of the Dirichlet Laplacian in the tube near nodal points of the one-dimensional Schrodinger operator. As a consequence, we prove the "nodal-line conjecture" for a class of non-convex and possibly multiply connected domains. The results are based on a perturbation theory developed for Schrodinger-type operators in a straight tube of diminishing cross-section.