Adjoint subspaces in Banach spaces,with applications to ordinary differential subspaces

Summary Given two subspaces A₀ ⊂ A₁ ⊂ W=X ⊕ Y, where X, Y are Banach spaces, we show how to characterize, in terms of generalized boundary conditions, those adjoint pairs A, A* satisfying A₀ ⊂ A ⊂ A₁, A ₁ ^* ⊂ A∗ ⊂ A ₀ ^* ⊂ W⁺=Y* ⊕ X*, where X*, Y* are the conjugate spaces of X, Y, respectively. The characterizations of selfadjoint (normal) subspace extensions of symmetric (formally normal) subspaces appear as special cases when Y=X*. These results are then applied to ordinary differential subspaces in W=L^q(ι) ⊕ L^r(ι), 1≦q, r≦∞, where τ is a real interval, and in W=C( ) ⊕ C( ), where is a compact interval. Entrata in Redazione il 21 febbraio 1977. The work of EarlA. Coddington was supported in part by the National Science Foundation under NSF Grant No. MCS-76-05855.