The spectrum of the Laplacian in a domain bounded by a flexible polyhedron in $\mathbb R^d$ does not always remain unaltered during the flex

Abstract

Being motivated by the theory of flexible polyhedra, we study the Dirichlet and Neumann eigenvalues for the Laplace operator in special bounded domains of Euclidean $d$-space. The boundary of such a domain is an embedded simplicial complex which allows a continuous deformation (a flex), under which each simplex of the complex moves as a solid body and the change in the spatial shape of the domain is achieved through a change of the dihedral angles only. The main result of this article is that both the Dirichlet and Neumann spectra of the Laplace operator in such a domain do not necessarily remain unaltered during the flex of its boundary.