Exponential localization of Steklov eigenfunctions on warped product manifolds: the flea on the elephant phenomenon

This paper is devoted to the analysis of Steklov eigenvalues and Steklov eigenfunctions on a class of warped product Riemannian manifolds (M, g) whose boundary \(\partial M\) consists in two distinct connected components \(\Gamma _0\) and \(\Gamma _1\). First, we show that the Steklov eigenvalues can be divided into two families \((\lambda _m^\pm )_{m \ge 0}\) which satisfy accurate asymptotics as \(m \rightarrow \infty \). Second, we consider the associated Steklov eigenfunctions which are the harmonic extensions of the boundary Dirichlet to Neumann eigenfunctions. In the case of symmetric warped product, we prove that the Steklov eigenfunctions are exponentially localized on the whole boundary \(\partial M\) as \(m \rightarrow \infty \). When we add an asymmetric perturbation of the metric to a symmetric warped product, we observe in almost all cases a flea on the elephant effect. Roughly speaking, we prove that “half” the Steklov eigenfunctions are exponentially localized on one connected component of the boundary, say \(\Gamma _0\), and the other half on the other connected component \(\Gamma _1\) as \(m \rightarrow \infty \).