Positive integral operators in unbounded domains

We study positive integral operators in with continuous kernel k(x,y). We show that if the operator is compact and Hilbert-Schmidt. If in addition k(x,x)→0 as |x|→∞, k is represented by an absolutely and uniformly convergent bilinear series of uniformly continuous eigenfunctions and is trace class. Replacing the first assumption by the stronger then and the bilinear series converges also in L¹. Sharp norm bounds are obtained and Mercer's theorem is derived as a special case.