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.