Spectrum of the Laplacian with weights

Abstract

Given a compact Riemannian manifold (M, g) and two positive functions $ρ$ and $σ$, we are interested in the eigenvalues of the Dirichlet energy functional weighted by $σ$, with respect to the L 2 inner product weighted by $ρ$. Under some regularity conditions on $ρ$ and $σ$, these eigenvalues are those of the operator $ρ$^{-1} div($σ$$\nabla$u) with Neumann conditions on the boundary if $\partial$M = $\emptyset$. We investigate the effect of the weights on eigenvalues and discuss the existence of lower and upper bounds under the condition that the total mass is preserved.