Spectrum of a Jacobi matrix with exponentially growing matrix elements

A Jacobi matrix with an exponential growth of its elements and the corresponding symmetric operator are considered. It is proved that the eigenvalue problem for some self-adjoint extension of this operator in some Hilbert space is equivalent to the eigenvalue problem of the Sturm-Liouville operator with a discrete self-similar weight. An asymptotic formula for the distribution of eigenvalues is obtained.