Spectral Properties of Some Linear Matrix Differential Operators in Lp-spaces on $${\mathbb{R}}$$

A detailed study is made of matrix-valued, ordinary linear differential operators T in for 1 < p < ∞, which arise as the perturbation of a constant coefficient differential operator of order n ≥ 1 by a lower order differential operator which has a factorisation S = AB for suitable operators A and B. Via techniques from L ^p -harmonic analysis, perturbation theory and local spectral theory, it is shown that T satisfies certain local resolvent estimates, which imply the existence of local functional calculi and decomposability properties of T.