Impossibility of a nontrivial Brunn--Minkowski inequality for higher Dirichlet eigenvalue

Abstract

Let $λ_j(K)$ be the $j$th Dirichlet eigenvalue of a convex body $K$. It is well known that $λ_1$ satisfies a Brunn--Minkowski inequality: $K \mapsto λ_1(K)^{-1/2}$ is concave on the family of convex bodies. We show that no analogous statement holds for higher eigenvalues. More precisely, for any $j \geq 2$ and $N \geq 2$, if $K \mapsto (f \circ λ_j)(K)$ is concave on the family of convex bodies in $\mathbb{R}^N$ for some function $f: (0, \infty) \to \mathbb{R}$, then $f$ must be constant.