In the last years some results for the Laplacian on manifolds have been shown to hold also for the graph Laplacian, e.g. Courant's nodal domain theorem or Cheeger's inequality. Friedman (Some geometric aspects of graphs and their eigenfunctions, Duke Math. J. 69 (3), pp. 487-525, 1993) described the idea of a ``graph with boundary". With this concept it is possible to formulate Dirichlet and Neumann eigenvalue problems. Friedman also conjectured another ``classical" result for manifolds, the Faber-Krahn theorem, for regular bounded trees with boundary. The Faber-Krahn theorem states that among all bounded domains $D \subset R^n$ with fixed volume, a ball has lowest first Dirichlet eigenvalue. In this paper we show such a result for regular trees by using a rearrangement technique. We give restrictive conditions for trees with boundary where the first Dirichlet eigenvalue is minimized for a given "volume". Amazingly Friedman's conjecture is false, i.e. in general these trees are not ``balls". But we will show that these are similar to ``balls". (author's abstract) / Series: Preprint Series / Department of Applied Statistics and Data Processing

In this paper we prove a Faber-Krahn-type inequality for regular trees and give a complete characterization of extremal trees. It extends a former result of the author. The main tools are rearrangements and perturbation of regular trees. (author's abstract) / Series: Preprint Series / Department of Applied Statistics and Data Processing

The subject of this Thesis is to examine nontrivial solutions of boundary value problems for second order ODEs with unilateral jumping nonlinearities. Considered problems can be interpreted as models of a simple beam supported by three types of elastic obstacles. Couples of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are found and discussed with respect to parameter which represents the strength of the obstacle.

L'objectif de ce mémoire est de démontrer certaines propriétés géométriques des fonctions propres de l'oscillateur harmonique quantique. Nous étudierons les domaines nodaux, c'est-à-dire les composantes connexes du complément de l'ensemble nodal. Supposons que les valeurs propres ont été ordonnées en ordre croissant. Selon un théorème fondamental dû à Courant, une fonction propre associée à la $n$-ième valeur propre ne peut avoir plus de $n$ domaines nodaux. Ce résultat a été prouvé initialement pour le laplacien de Dirichlet sur un domaine borné mais il est aussi vrai pour l'oscillateur harmonique quantique isotrope. Le théorème a été amélioré par Pleijel en 1956 pour le laplacien de Dirichlet. En effet, on peut donner un résultat asymptotique plus fort pour le nombre de domaines nodaux lorsque les valeurs propres tendent vers l'infini. Dans ce mémoire, nous prouvons un résultat du même type pour l'oscillateur harmonique quantique isotrope. Pour ce faire, nous utiliserons une combinaison d'outils classiques de la géométrie spectrale (dont certains ont été utilisés dans la preuve originale de Pleijel) et de plusieurs nouvelles idées, notamment l'application de certaines techniques tirées de la géométrie algébrique et l'étude des domaines nodaux non-bornés. / The aim of this thesis is to explore the geometric properties of eigenfunctions of the isotropic quantum harmonic oscillator. We focus on studying the nodal domains, which are the connected components of the complement of the nodal (i.e. zero) set of an eigenfunction. Assume that the eigenvalues are listed in an increasing order. According to a fundamental theorem due to Courant, an eigenfunction corresponding to the $n$-th eigenvalue has at most $n$ nodal domains. This result has been originally proved for the Dirichlet eigenvalue problem on a bounded Euclidean domain, but it also holds for the eigenfunctions of a quantum harmonic oscillator. Courant's theorem was refined by Pleijel in 1956, who proved a more precise result on the asymptotic behaviour of the number of nodal domains of the Dirichlet eigenfunctions on bounded domains as the eigenvalues tend to infinity. In the thesis we prove a similar result in the case of the isotropic quantum harmonic oscillator. To do so, we use a combination of classical tools from spectral geometry (some of which were used in Pleijel’s original argument) with a number of new ideas, which include applications of techniques from algebraic geometry and the study of unbounded nodal domains.

[pt] Plasma é um dos quatro estados fundamentais da matéria, presente em forma natural na Terra na ionosfera, em relâmpagos e nas chamas resultantes de combustão, assim como em forma artificial em lâmpadas de neônio, lâmpadas fluorescentes e processos industriais. O comportamento de plasmas é extraordinariamente complexo e variado, como por exemplo a formação espontânea de características espaciais interessantes em variadas escalas diferentes de comprimento. Uma antena de plasma, por sua vez, é uma estrutura radiante baseada em um elemento de plasma em vez de um condutor metálico, o que gera diversas vantagens e características úteis de um ponto de vista tecnológico. Nesse presente trabalho, uma investigação da propagação eletromagnética dentro de estruturas de plasma é realizada através de métodos teóricos e numéricos como um primeiro passo em direção ao desenvolvimento de modelos apropriados para o estudo de antenas de plasma. / [en] Plasma is one of the four fundamental states of matter, present on Earth in natural form at the ionosphere, in lightning strikes and in the flames resulting from combustion, as well as in artificial form in neon signs, fluorescent light bulbs and industrial processes. Plasma behaviour is extraordinarily complex and varied, e.g. the spontaneous formation of interesting spatial features over a wide range of length scales. A plasma antenna, on the other hand, is a radiating structure based in a plasma element instead of a metallic conductor, which creates several technological advantages and useful characteristics. In this present work, an investigation of electromagnetic propagation inside of plasma structures is performed through both theoretical and numerical means as a first step towards constructing appropriate models for the study of plasma antennas.

The presented diploma thesis deals with the problem of determining the stress singularity exponent of the V-notch. This task can be divided into two parts. The first deals with the theoretical background, that means the basic relations of mechanics and the basic concepts of fracture mechanics. The second part deals with the elaboration of the Williams method and the creation of a program for calculating the stress singularity exponent.