On the torsion function with mixed boundary conditions

Abstract

Let $D$ be a non-empty open subset of $\R^m,\,m\ge 2$, with boundary $\partial D$, with finite Lebesgue measure $|D|$, and which satisfies a parabolic Harnack principle. Let $K$ be a compact, non-polar subset of $D$. We obtain the leading asymptotic behaviour as $\varepsilon\downarrow 0$ of the $L^{\infty}$ norm of the torsion function with a Neumann boundary condition on $\partial D$, and a Dirichlet boundary condition on $\partial (\varepsilon K)$, in terms of the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian with corresponding boundary conditions. These estimates quantify those of Burdzy, Chen and Marshall who showed that $D\setminus K$ is a non-trap domain.