Domains without dense Steklov nodal sets

Abstract

This article concerns the asymptotic geometric character of the nodal set of the eigenfunctions of the Steklov eigenvalue problem $$ -Δϕ_{σ_j}=0,\quad\text{ on }Ω,\qquad\qquad \partial_νϕ_{σ_j}=σ_j ϕ_{σ_j}\quad \text{ on }\partialΩ$$ in two-dimensional domains $Ω$. In particular, this paper presents a dense family $\mathcal{A}$ of simply-connected two-dimensional domains with analytic boundaries such that, for each $Ω\in \mathcal{A}$, the nodal set of the eigenfunction $ϕ_{σ_j}$ "is $not$ dense at scale $σ_j^{-1}$". This result addresses a question put forth under "Open Problem 10" in Girouard and Polterovich, J. Spectr. Theory, 321-359 (2017). In fact, the results in the present paper establish that, for domains $Ω\in \mathcal{A}$, the nodal sets of the eigenfunctions $ϕ_{σ_j}$ associated with the eigenvalue $σ_j$ have starkly different character than anticipated: they are not dense at any shrinking scale. More precisely, for each $Ω\in \mathcal{A}$ there is a value $r_1>0$ such that for each $j$ there is $x_j\in Ω$ such that $ϕ_{σ_j}$ does not vanish on the ball of radius $r_1$ around $x_j$.