The Fourth-order Bessel–type Differential Equation

The Bessel-type functions, structured as extensions of the classical Bessel functions, were defined by Everitt and Markett in 1994. These special functions are derived by linear combinations and limit processes from the classical orthogonal polynomials, classical Bessel functions and the Krall Jacobi-type and Laguerre-type orthogonal polynomials. These Bessel-type functions are solutions of higher-order linear differential equations, with a regular singularity at the origin and an irregular singularity at the point of infinity of the complex plane.

There is a Bessel-type differential equation for each even-order integer; the equation of order two is the classical Bessel differential equation. These even-order Bessel-type equations are not formal powers of the classical Bessel equation.

When the independent variable of these equations is restricted to the positive real axis of the plane they can be written in the Lagrange symmetric (formally self-adjoint) form of the Glazman–Naimark type, with real coefficients. Embedded in this form of the equation is a spectral parameter; this combination leads to the generation of self-adjoint operators in a weighted Hilbert function space. In the second-order case one of these associated operators has an eigenfunction expansion that leads to the Hankel integral transform.

This article is devoted to a study of the spectral theory of the Bessel-type differential equation of order four; considered on the positive real axis this equation has singularities at both end-points. In the associated Hilbert function space these singular end-points are classified, the minimal and maximal operators are defined and all associated self-adjoint operators are determined, including the Friedrichs self-adjoint operator. The spectral properties of these self-adjoint operators are given in explicit form.

From the properties of the domain of the maximal operator, in the associated Hilbert function space, it is possible to obtain a virial theorem for the fourth-order Bessel-type differential equation.

There are two solutions of this fourth-order equation that can be expressed in terms of classical Bessel functions of order zero and order one. However it appears that additional, independent solutions essentially involve new special functions not yet defined. The spectral properties of the self-adjoint operators suggest that there is an eigenfunction expansion similar to the Hankel transform, but details await a further study of the solutions of the differential equation.     

Complex symplectic geometry with applications to ordinary differential operators

Complex symplectic spaces, and their Lagrangian subspaces, are defined in accord with motivations from Lagrangian classical dynamics and from linear ordinary differential operators; and then their basic algebraic properties are established. After these purely algebraic developments, an Appendix presents a related new result on the theory of self-adjoint operators in Hilbert spaces, and this provides an important application of the principal theorems.

     

Spectral Estimates for Resolvent Differences of Self-Adjoint Elliptic Operators

The concept of quasi boundary triples and Weyl functions from extension theory of symmetric operators in Hilbert spaces is developed further and spectral estimates for resolvent differences of two self-adjoint extensions in terms of general operator ideals are proved. The abstract results are applied to self-adjoint realizations of second order elliptic differential operators on bounded and exterior domains, and partial differential operators with δ-potentials supported on hypersurfaces are studied.     

Operator kernel estimates for functions of generalized Schrödinger operators

We study the decay at large distances of operator kernels of functions of generalized Schrödinger operators, a class of semibounded second order partial differential operators of mathematical physics, which includes the Schrödinger operator, the magnetic Schrödinger operator, and the classical wave operators (i.e., acoustic operator, Maxwell operator, and other second order partial differential operators associated with classical wave equations). We derive an improved Combes-Thomas estimate, obtaining an explicit lower bound on the rate of exponential decay of the operator kernel of the resolvent. We prove that for slowly decreasing smooth functions the operator kernels decay faster than any polynomial.

     

The Morse and Maslov indices for Schrödinger operators

We study the spectrum of Schrödinger operators with matrixvalued potentials, utilizing tools from infinite-dimensional symplectic geometry. Using the spaces of abstract boundary values, we derive relations between the Morse and Maslov indices for a family of operators on a Hilbert space obtained by perturbing a given self-adjoint operator by a smooth family of bounded self-adjoint operators. The abstract results are applied to the Schrödinger operators with θ-periodic, Dirichlet, and Neumann boundary conditions. In particular, we derive an analogue of the Morse-Smale Index Theorem for multi-dimensional Schrödinger operators with periodic potentials. For quasi-convex domains in Rⁿ, we recast the results, connecting the Morse and Maslov indices using the Dirichlet and Neumann traces on the boundary of the domain.     

General spectral flow formula for fixed maximal domain

We consider a continuous curve of linear elliptic formally self-adjoint differential operators of first order with smooth coefficients over a compact Riemannian manifold with boundary together with a continuous curve of global elliptic boundary value problems. We express the spectral flow of the resulting continuous family of (unbounded) self-adjoint Fredholm operators in terms of the Maslov index of two related curves of Lagrangian spaces. One curve is given by the varying domains, the other by the Cauchy data spaces. We provide rigorous definitions of the underlying concepts of spectral theory and symplectic analysis and give a full (and surprisingly short) proof of our General Spectral Flow Formula for the case of fixed maximal domain. As a side result, we establish local stability of weak inner unique continuation property (UCP) and explain its role for parameter dependent spectral theory. This work was supported in part by The Danish Science Research Council, SNF grant 21-02-0446. The second author is partially supported by FANEDD 200215, 973, Program of MOST, Fok Ying Tung Edu. Funds 91002, LPMC of MOE of China, and Nankai University.     

Symplectic geometry and dissipative differential operators

Everitt and Markus characterized the domains of self-adjoint differential operators in terms of Lagrangian subspaces of complex symplectic spaces. In this paper we define Dissipative and strictly Dissipative subspaces for complex symplectic spaces and characterize the domains of dissipative and strictly dissipative differential operators in terms of these subspaces.     

Nonself-adjoint operators with almost Hermitian spectrum: Cayley identity and some questions of spectral structure

Nonself-adjoint, non-dissipative perturbations of possibly unbounded self-adjoint operators with real purely singular spectrum are considered under an additional assumption that the characteristic function of the operator possesses a scalar multiple. Using a functional model of a nonself-adjoint operator (a generalization of a Sz.-Nagy–Foiaş model for dissipative operators) as a principle tool, spectral properties of such operators are investigated. A class of operators with almost Hermitian spectrum (the latter being a part of the real singular spectrum) is characterized in terms of existence of the so-called weak outer annihilator which generalizes the classical Cayley identity to the case of nonself-adjoint operators in Hilbert space. A similar result is proved in the self-adjoint case, characterizing the condition of absence of the absolutely continuous spectral subspace in terms of the existence of weak outer annihilation. An application to the rank-one nonself-adjoint Friedrichs model is given.     

The classification of self-adjoint boundary conditions of differential operators with two singular endpoints

For general even order linear ordinary differential equations with real coefficients and endpoints which are regular or singular and for arbitrary deficiency index d, the self-adjoint domains are determined by d linearly independent boundary conditions. These conditions are of three types: separated, coupled, and mixed. We give a construction for all conditions of each type and determine the number of conditions of each type possible for a given self-adjoint domain. Our construction gives a direct alternative to the recent construction of Everitt and Markus which uses the theory of symplectic spaces. We believe our construction will prove useful in the spectral analysis of these operators and in obtaining canonical forms of self-adjoint boundary conditions. Such forms are known only in the second order, i.e. Sturm-Liouville, case. Even for regular problems of order four no such forms are available. In the case when all d conditions are separated this construction yields explicit non-real conditions for all orders greater than two. It is well known that no such conditions exist in the second order case.     

Generalized Eigenfunctions for Waves in Inhomogeneous Media

Many wave propagation phenomena in classical physics are governed by equations that can be recast in Schrödinger form. In this approach the classical wave equation (e.g., Maxwell's equations, acoustic equation, elastic equation) is rewritten in Schrödinger form, leading to the study of the spectral theory of its classical wave operator, a self-adjoint, partial differential operator on a Hilbert space of vector-valued, square integrable functions. Physically interesting inhomogeneous media give rise to nonsmooth coefficients. We construct a generalized eigenfunction expansion for classical wave operators with nonsmooth coefficients. Our construction yields polynomially bounded generalized eigenfunctions, the set of generalized eigenvalues forming a subset of the operator's spectrum with full spectral measure.     

Numerical Solution of Boundary Value Problems for Selfadjoint Differential Equations of 2nth Order

The paper is devoted to solving boundary value problems for self-adjoint linear differential equations of 2nth order in the case that the corresponding differential operator is self-adjoint and positive semidefinite. The method proposed consists in transforming the original problem to solving several initial value problems for certain systems of first order ODEs. Even if this approach may be used for quite general linear boundary value problems, the new algorithms described here exploit the special properties of the boundary value problems treated in the paper. As a consequence, we obtain algorithms that are much more effective than similar ones used in the general case. Moreover, it is shown that the algorithms studied here are numerically stable.     

The discrete Prüfer transformation

The classical Prüfer transformation has proved to be a useful tool in the study of Sturm-Liouville theory. In this paper we introduce the Prüfer transformation for self-adjoint difference equations and use it to obtain oscillation criteria and other results. We then offer an extension of this approach to the case of general symplectic systems on time scales. Time scales have been introduced in order to unify discrete and continuous analysis, and indeed our results cover as special cases both the Prüfer transformation for differential and for difference equations.

     

Singular point perturbation of an odd operator in ℤ2-Graded space

In the paper we study supersymmetric models for point interaction perturbations of operators of Dirac type and their spectral properties. Such models are considered in the class of odd self-adjoint operators in ℤ₂-graded Pontryagin space. We present in detail the previously considered realization method of strongly singular perturbation by means of their embedding into the theory of self-adjoint extensions. We describe odd self-adjoint extensions of odd symmetric operators with deficiency indices (1,1) in ℤ₂-graded Pontryagin space and squares of such extensions using Krein’s formula for the resolvent. The results obtained are refined in application to singular perturbations of odd self-adjoint differential operators. Translated fromMatematicheskie Zametki, Vol. 66, No. 6, pp. 924–940, December, 1999.     

Self-adjoint commuting ordinary differential operators

In this paper we study self-adjoint commuting ordinary differential operators of rank two. We find sufficient conditions when an operator of fourth order commuting with an operator of order 4g+2 is self-adjoint. We introduce an equation on potentials V(x),W(x) of the self-adjoint operator \(L=(\partial_{x}^{2}+V)^{2}+W\) and some additional data. With the help of this equation we find the first example of commuting differential operators of rank two corresponding to a spectral curve of higher genus. These operators have polynomial coefficients and define commutative subalgebras of the first Weyl algebra.     

An example of unitary equivalence between self-adjoint extensions and their parameters

The spectral problem for self-adjoint extensions is studied using the machinery of boundary triplets. For a class of symmetric operators having Weyl functions of a special type we calculate explicitly the spectral projections in the form of operator-valued integrals. This allows one to give a constructive proof of the fact that, in certain intervals, the resulting self-adjoint extensions are unitarily equivalent to the parameterizing boundary operator acting in a smaller space, and one is able to provide an explicit form for the associated unitary transform. Applications to differential operators on metric graphs and to direct sums are discussed.     

Knotted linear force-free magnetic fields-topological aspects

The problem of computing linear force-free magnetic fields on a knotted multiply-connected domain is considered. The domain is the support of the current distribution, and the linear force-free fieldproblem reduces to finding an eigenfield of a self-adjoint curl operator. In this context, the GKN Theorem is reformulated in terms of symplectic geometry in order to characterize the self-adjoint extensions of the curl operator restricted to solenoidal vector fields. When further restricted to the isotopy invariant boundary conditions, the self-adjoint extensions are parametrized by the Lagrangian subspaces of the symplectic form on the first homology group of the boundary. This paper discusses some of the topological aspects and gives some pointers for the associated finite element discretization. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

On Some Operators Associated to Superoscillations

In this paper we study the convergence of some sequences of operators associated to the Aharonov and Berry’s superoscillating functions. The main tool to define the sequences of operators is the spectral theorem. In particular we discuss the case of sequences of unbounded self-adjoint operators on a Hilbert space. We apply our results to the case where T is the self-adjoint extension of the momentum operator with unbounded spectrum.