PIPages
Labs

Jiuyi Zhu

Louisiana State University, LA·Mathematics & Statistics

A vibrating guitar string or drum skin moves in a set of basic patterns called modes. In mathematics these modes are eigenfunctions of the Laplace operator, a building block of the partial differential equations (PDE) that describe vibration.

Fields

Mathematics & Statistics

Topics

partial differential equations

Laplacian eigenfunctions

nodal sets

Grants
1 known grant, through Jul 2028

What they work on

  1. Estimate the size of zero-level (nodal) sets of Laplacian eigenfunctions for second-order and higher-order elliptic equations, and determine how that size depends on high frequency.
  2. Study level sets of eigenfunctions in periodic elliptic homogenization, where equation coefficients vary in a fine repeating pattern.
  3. Prove quantitative Cauchy uniqueness and propagation of smallness for elliptic equations with singular weights, measured on measurable sets of positive measure.
  4. Apply quantitative unique continuation results to null controllability for heat equations and to energy density estimates in spectral theory.

More about the research

Eigenfunctions are higher-dimensional versions of the familiar sine and cosine functions on a circle. As the frequency grows, their shapes and the places where they concentrate change. A central question is how those changes depend on frequency, and how the size of a vibration in one region limits its size elsewhere. These questions drive the quantitative study of solutions of PDE.

Why it matters

This is basic mathematics. It sharpens understanding of how solutions of vibration and diffusion equations behave at high frequency and how their size propagates through space. The resulting estimates could inform control theory, including how heat can be steered to a desired state, and spectral theory, which studies the characteristic frequencies of a system.

Known grants

From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.

Studies on Quantitative Properties of Solutions of Partial Differential Equations

NSF · Aug 2025 – Jul 2028

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Simon Bortz

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The school

Louisiana State University: 15 labs on PI Pages, $431M a year on research, 323 research doctorates a year.

More about Louisiana State University

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