Computing eigenvalues of the Laplacian on rough domains

Abstract

We prove a general Mosco convergence theorem for bounded Euclidean domains satisfying a set of mild geometric hypotheses. For bounded domains, this notion implies norm-resolvent convergence for the Dirichlet Laplacian which in turn ensures spectral convergence. A key element of the proof is the development of a novel, explicit Poincaré-type inequality. These results allow us to construct a universal algorithm capable of computing the eigenvalues of the Dirichlet Laplacian on a wide class of rough domains. Many domains with fractal boundaries, such as the Koch snowflake and certain filled Julia sets, are included among this class. Conversely, we construct a counterexample showing that there does not exist a universal algorithm of the same type capable of computing the eigenvalues of the Dirichlet Laplacian on an arbitrary bounded domain.