P\'olya-type estimates for the first Robin eigenvalue of elliptic operators

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to obtain optimal estimates for the first Robin eigenvalue of the anisotropic $p$-Laplace operator, namely: \[ \lambda_F(\beta,\Omega)=\lambda_{F}(p,\beta,\Omega)= \min_{\psi\in W^{1,p}(\Omega)\setminus\{0\} } \frac{\int_\Omega F(\nabla \psi)^p dx +\beta\int_{\partial\Omega}|\psi|^p F(\nu_{\Omega}) d\mathcal H^{N-1} }{\int_\Omega|\psi|^p dx} \] where $p\in]1,+\infty[$, $\Omega$ is a bounded, convex domain in $\mathbb R^{N}$, $\nu_{\Omega}$ is its Euclidean outward normal, $\beta$ is a real number, and $F$ is a sufficiently smooth norm on $\mathbb R^{N}$. We show an upper bound for $\lambda_{F}(\beta,\Omega)$ in terms of the first eigenvalue of a one-dimensional nonlinear problem, which depends on $\beta$ and on the volume and the anisotropic perimeter of $\Omega$, in the spirit of the classical estimates of P\'olya \cite{po61} for the Euclidean Dirichlet Laplacian. We will also provide a lower bound for the torsional rigidity \[ \tau_p(\beta,\Omega)^{p-1} = \max_{\substack{\psi\in W^{1,p}(\Omega)\setminus\{0\}}} \dfrac{\left(\int_\Omega |\psi| \, dx\right)^p}{\int_\Omega F(\nabla\psi)^p dx+\beta \int_{\partial\Omega}|\psi|^p F(\nu_{\Omega}) d\mathcal H^{N-1} }, \] when $\beta>0$. The obtained results are new also in the case of the classical Euclidean Laplacian.