arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Michiel van den Berg.
Let $Ω$ be an open set in a complete, smooth, non-compact, $m$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$ without boundary, where $M$ satisfies a two-sided Li-Yau gaussian heat kernel bound. It is shown that if $Ω$ has infinite measure, and if $Ω$ has finite heat content $H_Ω(T)$ for some $T>0$, then $H_Ω(t)<\infty$ for all $t>0$. Comparable two-sided bounds for $H_Ω(t)$ are obtained for such $Ω$.
Let $T^m$ be the $m$-dimensional unit torus, $m \in N$. The torsional rigidity of an open set $Ω\subset T^m$ is the integral with respect to Lebesgue measure over all starting points $x \in Ω$ of the expected lifetime in $Ω$ of a Brownian motion starting at $x$. In this paper we consider $Ω= T^m \backslash β[0,t]$, the complement of the path $β[0,t]$ of an independent Brownian motion up to time $t$. We compute the leading order asymptotic behaviour of the expectation of the torsional rigidity in the limit as $t \to \infty$. For $m=2$ the main contribution comes from the components in $T^2 \backslash β[0,t]$ whose inradius is comparable to the largest inradius, while for $m=3$ most of $T^3 \backslash β[0,t]$ contributes. A similar result holds for $m \geq 4$ after the Brownian path is replaced by a shrinking Wiener sausage $W_{r(t)}[0,t]$ of radius $r(t)=o(t^{-1/(m-2)})$, provided the shrinking is slow enough to ensure that the torsional rigidity tends to zero. Asymptotic properties of the capacity of $β[0,t]$ in $R^3$ and $W_1[0,t]$ in $R^m$, $m \geq 4$, play a central role throughout the paper. Our results contribute to a better understanding of the geometry of the complement of Brownian motion on $T^m$, which has received a lot of attention in the literature in past years.
Let $Ω$ be an open set in Euclidean space $\R^m,\, m=2,3,...$, and let $v_Ω$ denote the torsion function for $Ω$. It is known that $v_Ω$ is bounded if and only if the bottom of the spectrum of the Dirichlet Laplacian acting in $\Leb^2(Ω)$, denoted by $λ(Ω)$, is bounded away from $0$. It is shown that the previously obtained bound $\|v_Ω\|_{\Leb^{\infty}(Ω)}λ(Ω)\ge 1$ is sharp: for $m\in\{2,3,...\}$, and any $ε>0$ we construct an open, bounded and connected set $Ω_ε\subset \R^m$ such that $\|v_{Ω_ε}\|_{\Leb^{\infty}(Ω_ε)} λ(Ω_ε)<1+ε$. An upper bound for $v_Ω$ is obtained for planar, convex sets in Euclidean space $M=\R^2$, which is sharp in the limit of elongation. For a complete, non-compact, $m$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M$ with non-negative Ricci curvature, and without boundary it is shown that $v_Ω$ is bounded if and only if the bottom of the spectrum of the Dirichlet-Laplace-Beltrami operator acting in $\Leb^2(Ω)$ is bounded away from $0$.
Let $D$ be a bounded, connected, open set in Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^{2}$ with polygonal boundary. Suppose $D$ has initial temperature $1$ and the complement of $D$ has initial temperature $0$. We obtain the asymptotic behaviour of the heat content of $D$ as time $t \downarrow 0$. We then apply this result to compute the heat content of a particular fractal polyhedron as $t \downarrow 0$.
We obtain (i) lower and upper bounds for the heat content of an open set in $\mathbb{R}^m$ with $R$-smooth boundary and finite Lebesgue measure, (ii) a necessary and sufficient geometric condition for finiteness of the heat content in $\mathbb{R}^m$, and corresponding lower and upper bounds, (iii) lower and upper bounds for the heat loss of an open set in $\mathbb{R}^m$ with finite Lebesgue measure.
We obtain results for the spectral optimisation of Neumann eigenvalues on rectangles in $\mathbb{R}^2$ with a measure or perimeter constraint. We show that the rectangle with measure $1$ which maximises the $k$'th Neumann eigenvalue converges to the unit square in the Hausdorff metric as $k\rightarrow \infty$. Furthermore, we determine the unique maximiser of the $k$'th Neumann eigenvalue on a rectangle with given perimeter.
We consider the minimisation of Dirichlet eigenvalues $λ_k$, $k \in \N$, of the Laplacian on cuboids of unit measure in $\R^3$. We prove that any sequence of optimal cuboids in $\R^3$ converges to a cube of unit measure in the sense of Hausdorff as $k \rightarrow \infty$.
We consider arbitrary open sets $Ω$ in Euclidean space with finite Lebesgue measure, and obtain upper bounds for (i) the largest Courant-sharp Dirichlet eigenvalue of $Ω$, (ii) the number of Courant-sharp Dirichlet eigenvalues of $Ω$. This extends recent results of P. Bérard and B. Helffer.
We present some open problems and obtain some partial results for spectral optimization problems involving measure, torsional rigidity and first Dirichlet eigenvalue.
For $d \in \N$ and $Ω\ne \emptyset$ an open set in $\R^d$, we consider the eigenfunctions $Φ$ of the Dirichlet Laplacian $-Δ_Ω$ of $Ω$. If $Φ$ is associated with an eigenvalue below the essential spectrum of $-Δ_Ω$ we provide estimates for the $L_1$-norm of $Φ$ in terms of its $L_2$-norm and spectral data. These $L_1$-estimates are then used in the comparison of the heat content of $Ω$ at time $t>0$ and the heat trace at times $t' > 0$, where a two-sided estimate is established. We furthermore show that all eigenfunctions of $-Δ_Ω$ which are associated with a discrete eigenvalue of $H_Ω$, belong to $L_1(Ω)$.
We study the weighted heat trace asymptotics of an operator of Laplace type with mixed boundary conditions where the weight function exhibits radial blowup. We give formulas for the first three boundary terms in the expansion in terms of geometrical data.
We obtain upper bounds on the heat content and on the torsional rigidity of a complete Riemannian manifold M, assuming a generalized Hardy inequality for the Dirichlet Laplacian on M.
For a>0,let W^a(t) be the a-neighbourhood of standard Brownian motion in R^d starting at 0 and observed until time t.It is well-known that E|W^a(t)|~kappa_a t (t->infty) for d >= 3,with kappa_a the Newtonian capacity of the ball with radius a. We prove that lim_{t->infty} 1/t^{(d-2)/d}log P(|W^a(t)|<=bt) = -I^{kappa_a}(b) in (-infty,0) for all 0 infty.This is markedly different from the optimal strategy for large deviations |W^a(t)|<=f(t) with f(t)=o(t),where W^a(t) is known to fill completely a ball of volume f(t) and nothing outside,so that W^a(t) has no holes and f(t)^{-1/d}W^a(t) is localised in the limit as t->infty.We give a detailed analysis of the rate function I^{kappa_a},in particular,its behaviour near the boundary points of (0,kappa_a).It turns out that I^{kappa_a} has an infinite slope at kappa_a and,remarkably,for d>=5 is nonanalytic at some critical point in (0,kappa_a),above which it follows a pure power law.This crossover is associated with a collapse transition in the optimal strategy.We also derive the analogous moderate deviation result for d=2.In this case E|W^a(t)|~2pi t/log t (t->infty),and we prove that lim_{t->infty} 1/log t log P(|W^a(t)|<=bt/log t) =-I^{2pi}(b)in (-infty,0) for all 0<b<2pi.