Localization of Laplacian Eigenfunctions in Simple and Irregular Domains
Localisation des fonctions propres du Laplacien dans des domaines simples et irréguliers
Résumé
The primary goal of the thesis is to study localization of Laplacian eigenfunctions in bounded domains when an eigenfunction is mainly supported by a small region of the domain and vanishing outside this region. The high-frequency and low-frequency localization in simple and irregular domains has been investigated for both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions. Three types of high-frequency localization (whispering gallery, bouncing ball, and focusing eigemodes) have been revisited in circular, spherical and elliptical domains by deriving explicit inequalities on the norm of eigenfunctions. In turn, no localization has been found in most rectangular domains that led to formulating an open problem of characterization of domains that admit high-frequency localization. Using the Maslov-type differential inequalities, the exponential decay of low-frequency Dirichlet eigenfunctions has been extensively studied in various domains with branches of variable cross-sectional profiles. Under an explicit condition, the L2-norm of an eigenfunction has been shown to exponentially decay along the branch with an explicitly computed decay rate. This rigorous upper bound, which is applicable in any dimension and for both finite and infinite branches, presents a new achievement in the theory of classical and quantum waveguides, with potential applications in microelectronics, optics and acoustics. For bounded quantum waveguides with constant cross-sectional profiles, a sufficient condition on the branch lengths has been derived for getting a localized eigenfunction. The existence of trapped modes in typical finite quantum waveguides (e.g L-shape, bent strip and cross of two strips) has been proven provided that their branches are long enough, with an accurate estimate on the required minimal length. The high sensitivity of the localization character of eigenmodes to the length of branches and to the shape of the waveguide may potentially be used for switching devices in microelectronics and optics. The properties of localized eigenmodes in a class of planar spectral graphs have been analyzed. An efficient divide-and-conquer algorithm for solving the eigenproblem of the Laplacian matrix of undirected weighted graphs has been proposed and shown to run faster than traditional algorithms. A spectral approach has been developed to investigate the survival probability of reflected Brownian motion in reactive media. The survival probabilities have been represented in the form of a spectral decomposition over Laplacian eigenfunctions. The role of the geometrical structure of reactive regions and its influence on the overall reaction rate in the long-time regime has been studied. This approach presents a mathematical basis for designing optimal geometrical shapes of efficient catalysts or diffusive exchangers.
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