Reverse Faber-Krahn and Szego-Weinberger type inequalities for annular domains under Robin-Neumann boundary conditions

Abstract

Let $\tau_k(\Omega)$ be the $k$-th eigenvalue of the Laplace operator in a bounded domain $\Omega$ of the form $\Omega_{\text{out}} \setminus \overline{B_{\alpha}}$ under the Neumann boundary condition on $\partial \Omega_{\text{out}}$ and the Robin boundary condition with parameter $h \in (-\infty,+\infty]$ on the sphere $\partial B_\alpha$ of radius $\alpha>0$ centered at the origin, the limiting case $h=+\infty$ being understood as the Dirichlet boundary condition on $\partial B_\alpha$. In the case $h>0$, it is known that the first eigenvalue $\tau_1(\Omega)$ does not exceed $\tau_1(B_\beta \setminus \overline{B_\alpha})$, where $\beta>0$ is chosen such that $|\Omega| = |B_\beta \setminus \overline{B_\alpha}|$, which can be regarded as a reverse Faber-Krahn type inequality. We establish this result for any $h \in (-\infty,+\infty]$. Moreover, we provide related estimates for higher eigenvalues under additional geometric assumptions on $\Omega$, which can be seen as Szeg\H{o}-Weinberger type inequalities. A few counterexamples to the obtained inequalities for domains violating imposed geometric assumptions are given. As auxiliary information, we investigate shapes of eigenfunctions associated with several eigenvalues $\tau_{i}(B_\beta \setminus \overline{B_\alpha})$ and show that they are nonradial at least for all positive and all sufficiently negative $h$ when $i \in \{2,\ldots,N+2\}$. At the same time, we give numerical evidence that, in the planar case $N=2$, already second eigenfunctions can be radial for some $h<0$. The latter fact provides a simple counterexample to the Payne nodal line conjecture in the case of the mixed boundary conditions.