A note on common zeroes of Laplace--Beltrami eigenfunctions

Abstract

Let $\De u+\la u=\De v+\la v=0$, where $\De$ is the Laplace--Beltrami operator on a compact connected smooth manifold $M$ and $\la>0$. If $H^1(M)=0$ then there exists $p\in M$ such that $u(p)=v(p)=0$. For homogeneous $M$, $H^1(M)\neq0$ implies the existence of a pair $u,v$ as above that has no common zero.