On the first Dirichlet Laplacian eigenvalue of regular Polygons

Abstract

The Faber-Krahn inequality in $\mathbb{R}^2$ states that among all open bounded sets of given area the disk minimizes the first Dirichlet Laplacian eigenvalue. There are numerical evidences that for all $N\ge 3$ the first Dirichlet Laplacian eigenvalue of the regular $N$-gon is greater than the one of the regular $(N+1)$-gon of same area. This natural property is also suggested by the fact that the shape of regular polygons becomes more and more "rounded" as $N$ increases and, among sets of given area, disk minimize the eigenvalue. Aiming to settle such a conjecture, in this work we investigate possible ways to estimate the difference between eigenvalues of regular $N$-gons and $(N+1)$-gons.Comment: This paper has been written for possible publication in a special volume dedicated to the conference "Third Italian-Japanese Workshop on Geometric Properties for Parabolic and Elliptic PDE's", organized in Tokyo in August 201