Fourier transform , null variety , and Laplacian ’ s eigenvalues ∗

We consider a quantity κ(Ω) — the distance to the origin from the null variety of the Fourier transform of the characteristic function of Ω. We conjecture, firstly, that κ(Ω) is maximized, among all convex balanced domains Ω ⊂ R of a fixed volume, by a ball, and also that κ(Ω) is bounded above by the square root of the second Dirichlet eigenvalue of Ω. We prove some weaker versions of these conjectures in dimension two, as well as their validity for domains asymptotically close to a disk, and also discuss further links between κ(Ω) and the eigenvalues of the Laplacians.