Extremal eigenvalues of the Dirichlet biharmonic operator on rectangles

Abstract

We study the behaviour of extremal eigenvalues of the Dirichlet biharmonic operator over rectangles with a given fixed area. We begin by proving that the principal eigenvalue is minimal for a rectangle for which the ratio between the longest and the shortest side lengths does not exceed $1.066459$. We then consider the sequence formed by the minimal $k^{\rm th}$ eigenvalue and show that the corresponding sequence of minimising rectangles converges to the square as $k$ goes to infinity.