A sharp Wirtinger inequality and some related functional spaces

Abstract

We consider the generalized Wirtinger inequality \[ (\int_{0}^{T} a |u|^q )^{1/q} \le C \biggm(\int_{0}^{T} a^{1-p} |u'|^{p}\biggm)^{1/p}, \] with $p,q>1$, $T>0$, $a\in L^1[0,T]$, $a\ge0$, $a\not\equiv0$ and where $u$ is a $T$-periodic function satisfying the constraint \[ \int_{0}^{T} a |u|^{q-2}u =0. \] We provide the best constant $C>0$ as well as all extremals. Furthermore, we characterize the natural functional space where the inequality is defined.