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Monday, 25 December 2006

sp.spectral theory - Is there a name for this differential operator and/or its corresponding spectrum?

Let mathcalM be a real, compact, orientable manifold and let X be a vector field on mathcalM. Consider the functional



E(f)=intmathcalMXp(f)2dV



where Xp(f) is the directional (Lie) derivative of f along X at the point p and dV is a volume form on mathcalM -- this functional essentially measures the total amount of change in f along X over all of mathcalM in the L2 sense. Then deltaE(f) is a differential operator whose eigenspectrum



deltaE(f)=lambdaf



(for lambdainmathbbR) yields the critical points of E over the set of functions with unit norm. Is there an established name for this operator (or functional) and/or its corresponding eigenspectrum?



The prototype for this operator is Dirichlet's energy



intmathcalM||nablaf||2dV



which has as its (unit-norm) critical points the Laplacian eigenspectrum



nabla2f=lambdaf,



the main difference being that Dirichlet's energy measures the total gradient, i.e., the change in all directions, rather than just the change along a particular direction at each point.

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