Stability of extremal domains for the first eigenvalue of the Laplacian operator

Abstract

In this paper, we compute the second variation of the first Dirichlet eigenvalue on extremal domains in general Riemannian manifolds and establish a criterion for stability. We classify the stable extremal domains in the 2-sphere and higher-dimensional spheres when the boundary is minimal. Additionally, we establish topological bounds for stable domains in a general compact Riemannian surface, assuming either nonnegative total Gaussian curvature or small volume.