Let$M$be a connected, noncompact, complete Riemannian manifold, consider the operator$L=Δ+∇V$for some$V∈C$^{2}(M) with exp[$V$] integrable with respect to the Riemannian volume element. This paper studies the existence of the spectral gap of$L$. As a consequence of the main result, let ϱ be the distance function from a point o, then the spectral gap exists provided lim_{ϱ→∞}sup$L$_{ϱ<0}while the spectral gap does not exist if o is a pole and lim_{ϱ→∞}inf$L$_{ϱ≥0}. Moreover, the elliptic operators on$R$^{$d$}are also studied.

The centroaffine Minkowski problem is studied, which is the critical case of the <i>L</i>_<i>p</i>-Minkowski problem. It admits a variational structure that plays an important role in studying the existence of solutions. In this paper, we find that there is generally no maximizer of the corresponding functional for the centroaffine Minkowski problem.

The zero dissipation limit of the compressible heat-conducting NavierStokes equations in the presence of the shock is investigated. It is shown that when the heat conduction coefficient and the viscosity coefficient satisfy = O (), = O (), c&gt; 0, as 0 (see (1.3)), if the solution of the corresponding Euler equations is piecewise smooth with shock wave satisfying the Lax entropy condition, then there exists a smooth solution to the NavierStokes equations, which converges to the piecewise smooth shock solution of the Euler equations away from the shock discontinuity at a rate of . The proof is given by a combination of the energy estimates and the matched asymptotic analysis introduced in [3].

Quasilocal mass in general relativity is a notion defined for a closed space like 2-surface in spacetime. In this note, we explain the definition in [23] and [24] from a mathematical viewpoint, emphasizing the connection to differential geometry and nonlinear partial differential equations. We also discuss a minimax interpretation of the definition and compare with other notions of quasilocal mass.

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the discreteness of the Laplacian on a noncompact Riemannian manifold M are established in terms of the isocapacitary function of M. The relevant capacity takes a different form according to whether M has finite or infinite volume. Conditions involving the more standard isoperimetric function of M can also be derived, but they are only sufficient in general, as we demonstrate by concrete examples.