An optimal Poincar\'e-Wirtinger inequality in Gauss space

Abstract

Let $\Omega$ be a smooth, convex, unbounded domain of $\R^N$. Denote by $\mu_1(\Omega)$ the first nontrivial Neumann eigenvalue of the Hermite operator in $\Omega$; we prove that $\mu_1(\Omega) \ge 1$. The result is sharp since equality sign is achieved when $\Omega$ is a $N$-dimensional strip. Our estimate can be equivalently viewed as an optimal Poincar\'e-Wirtinger inequality for functions belonging to the weighted Sobolev space $H^1(\Omega,d\gamma_N)$, where $\gamma_N$ is the $N$-dimensional Gaussian measure.