Spectral gap for spherically symmetric log-concave probability measures, and beyond

Let μ be a probability measure on Rn (n≥2) with Lebesgue density proportional to e−V(‖x‖), where V:R+→R is a smooth convex potential. We show that the associated spectral gap in L2(μ) lies between (n−1)/∫Rn‖x‖2μ(dx) and n/∫Rn‖x‖2μ(dx), improving a well-known two-sided estimate due to Bobkov. Our Markovian approach is remarkably simple and is sufficiently robust to be extended beyond the log-concave case, at the price of potentially modifying the underlying operator in the energy, leading to weighted Poincaré inequalities. All our results are illustrated by some classical and less classical examples.