Shape monotonicity of the first Steklov-Dirichlet eigenvalue on eccentric annuli

Abstract: In this paper, we investigate the monotonicity of the first Steklov--Dirichlet eigenvalue on eccentric annuli with respect to the distance, namely $t$, between the centers of the inner and outer boundaries of an annulus. We first show the differentiability of the eigenvalue in $t$ and obtain an integral expression for the derivative value in two and higher dimensions. We then derive an upper bound of the eigenvalue for each $t$, in two dimensions, by the variational formulation. We also obtain a lower bound of the eigenvalue, given a restriction that the two boundaries of the annulus are sufficiently close. The key point of the proof of the lower bound is in analyzing the limit behavior of an infinite series expansion of the first eigenfunction in bipolar coordinates. We also perform numerical experiments that exhibit the monotonicity for two dimensions.