In this paper we prove that the second (non-trivial) Neumann eigenvalue of the Laplace operator on smooth domains of RN with prescribed measure m attains its maximum on the union of two disjoint balls of measure m/2. As a consequence, the Pólya conjecture for the Neumann eigenvalues holds for the second eigenvalue and for arbitrary domains. We moreover prove that a relaxed form of the same inequality holds in the context of non-smooth domains and densities.

The global existence of weak solutions to the compressible NavierStokes equations with vacuum attracts many research interests nowadays. For the isentropic gas, the viscosity coefficient depends on density function from physical point of view. When the density function connects to vacuum continuously, the vacuum degeneracy gives some analytic difficulties in proving global existence. In this paper, we consider this case with gravitational force and fixed boundary condition. By giving a series of <i>a priori</i> estimates on the solution coping with the degeneracy of vacuum, gravitational force and boundary effect, we give global existence and uniqueness results similar to the case without force and boundary. Copyright 2006 John Wiley &amp; Sons, Ltd.

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This paper studies stability of the Ekman boundary layer. We utilize a new approach, developed by the authors in a precedent paper, based on Fourier transformed finite vector Radon measures, which yields exponential stability of the Ekman spiral. By this method we can also derive very explicit bounds for solutions of the linearized and the nonlinear Ekman systems. For example, we can prove these bounds to be uniform with respect to the angular velocity of rotation, which has proved to be relevant for several aspects. Another advantage of this approach is that we obtain well-posedness in classes containing nondecaying vector fields such as almost periodic functions. These outcomes give respect to the nature of boundary layer problems and cannot be obtained by approaches in standard function spaces such as Lebesgue, Bessel-potential, Hölder or Besov spaces.

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