Gradient estimate of a Dirichlet eigenfunction on a compact manifold with boundary

Abstract

Let $e_\l(x)$ be an eigenfunction with respect to the Dirichlet Laplacian $\Delta_N$ on a compact Riemannian manifold $N$ with boundary: $\Delta_N e_\l=\l^2 e_\l$ in the interior of $N$ and $e_\l=0$ on the boundary of $N$. We show the following gradient estimate of $e_\l$: for every $\l\geq 1$, there holds $\l\|e_\l\|_\infty/C\leq \|\nabla e_\l\|_\infty\leq C{\l}\|e_\l\|_\infty$, where $C$ is a positive constant depending only on $N$. In the proof, we use a basic geometrical property of nodal sets of eigenfunctions and elliptic apriori estimates.