Decay of solutions of ordinary differential equations

We investigate the rate of decay of eigenfunctions of Schrödinger equations using a perturbation method which consists of making a perturbation B of the operator L of the form B[y]=L[y]−(g⁻¹Lg)[y], where g is an appropriately chosen function. In our theory we allow B to be either relatively compact or satisfy a certain boundedness condition. We give some examples which apply the results of our main theorems coupled with recent work on the relative boundedness and compactness of differential operators.