Isoperimetric and Universal Inequalities for Eigenvalues

Abstract

This paper reviews many of the known inequalities for the eigenvalues of the Laplacian and bi-Laplacian on bounded domains in Euclidean space. In particular, we focus on isoperimetric inequalities for the low eigenvalues of the Dirichlet and Neumann Laplacians and of the vibrating clamped plate problem (i.e., the biharmonic operator with ``Dirichlet'' boundary conditions). We also discuss the known universal inequalities for the eigenvalues of the Dirichlet Laplacian and the vibrating clamped plate and buckling problems and go on to present some new ones. Some of the names associated with these inequalities are Rayleigh, Faber-Krahn, Szego-Weinberger, Payne-Polya-Weinberger, Sperner, Hile-Protter, and H. C. Yang. Occasionally, we will also comment on extensions of some of our inequalities to bounded domains in other spaces, specifically, S^n or H^n.