Let mathcalMmathcalM be a real, compact, orientable manifold and let XX be a vector field on mathcalMmathcalM. Consider the functional
E(f)=intmathcalMXp(f)2dVE(f)=intmathcalMXp(f)2dV
where Xp(f)Xp(f) is the directional (Lie) derivative of ff along XX at the point pp and dVdV is a volume form on mathcalMmathcalM -- this functional essentially measures the total amount of change in ff along XX over all of mathcalMmathcalM in the L2L2 sense. Then deltaE(f)deltaE(f) is a differential operator whose eigenspectrum
deltaE(f)=lambdafdeltaE(f)=lambdaf
(for lambdainmathbbRlambdainmathbbR) yields the critical points of EE 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||2dVintmathcalM||nablaf||2dV
which has as its (unit-norm) critical points the Laplacian eigenspectrum
nabla2f=lambdaf,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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