A class of Nevanlinna functions related to singular Sturm-Liouville problems

The class of Nevanlinna functions consists of functions which are holomorphic off the real axis, which are symmetric with respect to the real axis, and whose imaginary part is nonnegative in the upper halfplane. The Kac subclass of Nevanlinna functions is defined by an integrability condition on the imaginary part. In this note a further subclass of these Kac functions is introduced. It involves an integrability condition on the modulus of the Nevanlinna functions (instead of the imaginary part). The characteristic properties of this class are investigated. The definition of the new class is motivated by the fact that the Titchmarsh-Weyl coefficients of various classes of Sturm-Liouville problems (under mild conditions on the coefficients) actually belong to this class.

     

Commutative and noncommutative representations of matrix-valued herglotz-nevanlinna functions

Operator realizations of matrix-valued Herglotz-Nevanlinna functions play an important and essential role in system theory, in the spectral theory of bounded nonselfadjoint operators, and in interpolation problems. Here, a generalization for realization results of the Brodskiǐ-Livsic type is given for Herglotz-Nevanlinna functions whose spectral measures are compactly supported.     

Singular Sturm-Liouville problems whose coefficients depend rationally on the eigenvalue parameter

Let −Dω(·,z)D+q be a differential operator in L²(0,∞) whose leading coefficient contains the eigenvalue parameter z. For the case that ω(·,z) has the particular form

     

Boundary relations and their Weyl families

The concepts of boundary relations and the corresponding Weyl families are introduced. Let be a closed symmetric linear operator or, more generally, a closed symmetric relation in a Hilbert space , let be an auxiliary Hilbert space, let

and let be defined analogously. A unitary relation from the Krein space to the Krein space is called a boundary relation for the adjoint if . The corresponding Weyl family is defined as the family of images of the defect subspaces , , under . Here need not be surjective and is even allowed to be multi-valued. While this leads to fruitful connections between certain classes of holomorphic families of linear relations on the complex Hilbert space and the class of unitary relations , it also generalizes the notion of so-called boundary value space and essentially extends the applicability of abstract boundary mappings in the connection of boundary value problems. Moreover, these new notions yield, for instance, the following realization theorem: every -valued maximal dissipative (for ) holomorphic family of linear relations is the Weyl family of a boundary relation, which is unique up to unitary equivalence if certain minimality conditions are satisfied. Further connections between analytic and spectral theoretical properties of Weyl families and geometric properties of boundary relations are investigated, and some applications are given.

     

Unitary Equivalence of Proper Extensions of a Symmetric Operator and the Weyl Function

Let A be a densely defined simple symmetric operator in ${\mathfrak{H}}$ , let ${\Pi=\{\mathcal{H},\Gamma_0, \Gamma_1}\}$ be a boundary triplet for A ^* and let M(·) be the corresponding Weyl function. It is known that the Weyl function M(·) determines the boundary triplet Π, in particular, the pair {A, A ₀}, uniquely up to the unitary similarity. Here ${A_0 := A^* \upharpoonright \text{ker}\, \Gamma_0 ( = A^*_0)}$ . At the same time the Weyl function corresponding to a boundary triplet for a dual pair of operators defines it uniquely only up to the weak similarity. We consider a symmetric dual pair {A, A} with symmetric ${A \subset A^*}$ and a special boundary triplet ${\widetilde{\Pi}}$ for{A, A} such that the corresponding Weyl function is ${\widetilde{M}(z) = K^*(B-M(z))^{-1} K}$ , where B is a non-self-adjoint bounded operator in ${\mathcal{H}}$ . We are interested in the problem whether the result on the unitary similarity remains valid for ${\widetilde{M}(\cdot)}$ in place of M(·). We indicate some sufficient conditions in terms of the operators A ₀ and ${A_B= A^* \upharpoonright \text{ker}\, (\Gamma_1-B \Gamma_0)}$ , which guaranty an affirmative answer to this problem. Applying the abstract results to the minimal symmetric 2nth order ordinary differential operator A in ${L^2(\mathbb{R}_+)}$ , we show that ${\widetilde{M}(\cdot)}$ defined in ${\Omega_+ \subset \mathbb{C}_+}$ determines the Dirichlet and Neumann realizations uniquely up to the unitary equivalence. At the same time similar result for realizations of Dirac operator fails. We obtain also some negative abstract results demonstrating that in general the Weyl function ${\widetilde{M}(\cdot)}$ does not determine A _B even up to the similarity.     

Linear fractional transformations of Stieltjes functions

Linear fractional transformations of Stieltjes (and inverse Stieljes) functions, which appear naturally in the extension theory of nonnegative symmetric operators with defect one in Hilbert spaces, are investigated. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Boundary Relations, Unitary Colligations, and Functional Models

Recently a new notion, the so-called boundary relation, has been introduced involving an analytic object, the so-called Weyl family. Weyl families and boundary relations establish a link between the class of Nevanlinna families and unitary relations acting from one Kreĭn space, a basic (state) space, to another Kreĭn space, a parameter space where the Nevanlinna family or Weyl family is acting. Nevanlinna families are a natural generalization of the class of operator-valued Nevanlinna functions and they are closely connected with the class of operator-valued Schur functions. This paper establishes the connection between boundary relations and their Weyl families on the one hand, and unitary colligations and their transfer functions on the other hand. From this connection there are various advances which will benefit the investigations on both sides, including operator theoretic as well as analytic aspects. As one of the main consequences a functional model for Nevanlinna families is obtained from a variant of the functional model of L. de Branges and J. Rovnyak for Schur functions. Here the model space is a reproducing kernel Hilbert space in which multiplication by the independent variable defines a closed simple symmetric operator. This operator gives rise to a boundary relation such that the given Nevanlinna family is realized as the corresponding Weyl family. Received: January 21, 2008., Revised: March 31, 2008.     

Sturm-Liouville operators and their spectral functions

Assume that the differential operator −DpD+q in L²(0,∞) has 0 as a regular point and that the limit-point case prevails at ∞. If p≡1 and q satisfies some smoothness conditions, it was proved by Gelfand and Levitan that the spectral functions σ(t) for the Sturm-Liouville operator corresponding to the boundary conditions (pu′)(0)=τu(0), , satisfy the integrability condition . The boundary condition u(0)=0 is exceptional, since the corresponding spectral function does not satisfy such an integrability condition. In fact, this situation gives an example of a differential operator for which one can construct an analog of the Friedrichs extension, even though the underlying minimal operator is not semibounded. In the present paper it is shown with simple arguments and under mild conditions on the coefficients p and q, including the case p≡1, that there exists an analog of the Friedrichs extension for nonsemibounded second order differential operators of the form −DpD+q by establishing the above mentioned integrability conditions for the underlying spectral functions.     

A reproducing kernel space model for -functions

A new model for generalized Nevanlinna functions will be presented. It involves Bezoutians and companion operators associated with certain polynomials determined by the generalized zeros and poles of . The model is obtained by coupling two operator models and expressed by means of abstract boundary mappings and the corresponding Weyl functions.

     

Singular Perturbations of Self-Adjoint Operators

Singular finite rank perturbations of an unbounded self-adjoint operator A ₀ in a Hilbert space ₀ are defined formally as A ₍₎=A ₀+GG ^*, where G is an injective linear mapping from = ^d to the scale space _-k(A₀)k , kN, of generalized elements associated with the self-adjoint operator A ₀, and where is a self-adjoint operator in . The cases k=1 and k=2 have been studied extensively in the literature with applications to problems involving point interactions or zero range potentials. The scalar case with k=2n>1 has been considered recently by various authors from a mathematical point of view. In this paper, singular finite rank perturbations A ₍₎ in the general setting ran G – _k (A ₀), kN, are studied by means of a recent operator model induced by a class of matrix polynomials. As an application, singular perturbations of the Dirac operator are considered.