Rearrangement inequalities and applications to isoperimetric problems for eigenvalues

Abstract

Let $Ω$ be a bounded $C^{2}$ domain in $\R^n$, and let $Ω^{\ast}$ be the Euclidean ball centered at 0 and having the same Lebesgue measure as $Ω$. Consider the operator $L=-÷(A\nabla)+v\cdot \nabla +V$ on $Ω$ with Dirichlet boundary condition. We prove that minimizing the principal eigenvalue of $L$ when the Lebesgue measure of $Ω$ is fixed and when $A$, $v$ and $V$ vary under some constraints is the same as minimizing the principal eigenvalue of some operators $L^*$ in the ball $Ω^*$ with smooth and radially symmetric coefficients. The constraints which are satisfied by the original coefficients in $Ω$ and the new ones in $Ω^*$ are expressed in terms of some distribution functions or some integral, pointwise or geometric quantities. Some strict comparisons are also established when $Ω$ is not a ball.