A note on lower bounds for the first eigenvalue of the Witten-Laplacian

Abstract

In this note, by extending the arguments of Ling (Illinois J. Math. 51, 853-860, 2007) to Bakry-Emery geometry, we shall give lower bounds for the first nonzero eigenvalue of the Witten-Laplacian on compact Bakry-Emery manifolds in the case that the Bakry-Emery Ricci curvature has some negative lower bounds and the manifold has the symmetry that the minimum of the first eigenfunction is the negative of the maximum. Our estimate is optimal among those obtained by a self-contained method.