Spectral Analysis of Higher-Order Differential Operators II: Fourth-Order Equations

We investigate the location and nature of the spectrum of thefourth-order self-adjoint equation (p₀ y')'+(p₁ y')'+qy=zwy subject to certain asymptotic assumptions on the coefficients.The main tools are the theory of asymptotic integration andthe Titchmarsh–Weyl M-matrix. Asymptotic integration yieldsasymptotic formulae for the solutions of the differential equationwhich are then used to derive properties of the M-matrix. Thecharacterisation of spectral properties in terms of the boundarybehaviour of M leads to the desired results.