Estimates on the modulus of expansion for vector fields solving nonlinear equations

Abstract

By adapting methods of \cite{AC} we prove a sharp estimate on the expansion modulus of the gradient of the log of the parabolic kernel to the Sch\"ordinger operator with convex potential, which improves an earlier work of Brascamp-Lieb. We also include alternate proofs to the improved log-concavity estimate, and to the fundamental gap theorem of Andrews-Clutterbuck via the elliptic maximum principle. Some applications of the estimates are also obtained, including a sharp lower bound on the first eigenvalue.