Extremal properties of the first eigenvalue and the fundamental gap of a sub-elliptic operator

We consider the problems of extreming the first eigenvalue and the fundamental gap of a sub-elliptic operator with Dirichlet boundary condition, when the potential $V$ is subjected to a $p$-norm constraint. The existence results for weak solutions, compact embedding theorem and spectral theory for sub-elliptic equation are given. Moreover, we provide the specific characteristics of the corresponding optimal potential function.