A Neumann Type Maximum Principle for the Laplace Operator on Compact Riemannian Manifolds

Abstract

In this paper we present a proof of a Neumann type maximum principle for the Laplace operator on compact Riemannian manifolds. A key p oint is the simple geometric nature of the constant in the a priori estimate of this maximum principle. In particular, this maximum principle can be applied to manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below and diameter bounded from above to yield a maximum estimate without dependence on a positive lower bound for the volume.