Two-point estimates for the logarithmic p-flux of the first Dirichlet p-eigenfunction

Abstract

Let \(u>0\) be the first Dirichlet \(p\)-eigenfunction on a bounded convex domain \(Ω\subset\mathbb R^N\), and set \[ X_Ω:=|\nabla\log u|^{p-2}\nabla\log u. \] We study whether the sharp one-dimensional two-point modulus for \(X_Ω\), which for \(p=2\) reduces to the logarithmic-gradient estimate of Andrews and Clutterbuck, persists for \(p\neq2\). We prove sharp estimates on intervals and balls for every \(p>1\), with the radial modulus on balls strictly larger than the one-dimensional one. In dimensions \(N\ge2\), however, the one-dimensional modulus fails on general convex domains for every \(p\neq2\). For \(1<p<2\), at every sufficiently small fixed scale there are smooth uniformly convex domains for which the corresponding two-point flux tends to zero. For \(p>2\), on thin domains \(Ω_\varepsilon=D\times(-\varepsilon,\varepsilon)\), with \(D\subset\mathbb R^{N-1}\) bounded and convex, the normalized first eigenfunctions satisfy \[ u_\varepsilon(x,\varepsilon z)\longrightarrow \frac{ϕ(z)}{ϕ(0)} \left(\frac{G_D(x)}{G_D(x_0)}\right)^{2/p} \] locally uniformly in \(D\times(-1,1)\), where \(ϕ\) and \(G_D\) are the first Dirichlet eigenfunctions of the \(p\)-Laplacian on \((-1,1)\) and of the Laplacian on \(D\), respectively. This yields the failure for \(p>2\). Finally, for arbitrary \(C^2\) functions, positivity of the symmetric differential of the \(p\)-gradient implies convexity, and the converse holds universally if and only if \(p=2\).