Asymptotic approximations of eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for regular Sturm-Liouville problems (Q2477857)

This paper deals with the regular Sturm-Liouville problem given by \[ \begin{aligned} &y ''(t)-(\lambda -q(t))y(t)=0,\quad t\in[0,\pi],\tag{1}\\ &y(0)\sin\alpha+y'(0)\cos\alpha=0, \tag{2}\\ &y(\pi)\sin\beta+y'(\pi)\cos\beta=0, \tag{3}\end{aligned} \] where \(\alpha\) and \(\beta\) are real numbers and \(q\in L^{1}[0,\pi].\) The author finds in Theorem 2 an exact expression for the eigenvalues \(\lambda_n\) in terms of the real and imaginary parts of complex-valued solutions of the Riccati equation \(v'=-\lambda + q -v^2\) associated to the Sturm-Liouville problem. As a consequence of this result, asymptotic approximations for \(\lambda_n\) are given in the particular cases of Dirichlet boundary conditions (\(\alpha=\beta=\frac{\pi}{2}\)) and Neumann conditions (\(\alpha=\beta=0\)), obtaining when \(n\) goes to infinity \[ \lambda_n^{1/2}\approx (n+1)-\frac{1}{n+1}A_{2(n+1)},\quad \text{ and } \quad \lambda_n^{1/2}\approx (n+1)+\frac{1}{n+1}A_{2(n+1)}, \] respectively (here \(A_m=\frac{1}{2\pi}\int_{0}^{\pi}q(t)\cos(mt)dt\), a real Fourier coefficient of \(q\)). In the second part of the paper the author finds approximations for the eigenfunctions \(\varphi(x,n)\) corresponding to (1)--(3). It is proved that when \(n\) tends to infinity, in the Dirichlet case we have \[ \varphi(x,n)=-\frac{1}{n+1}\sin \big((n+1)x-\frac{1}{2(n+1)}\int_{0}^{x}q(t)dt\big)+ O(n^{-2}\eta(n)), \] and for the Neumann conditions \[ \varphi(x,n)=\cos \big((n+1)x-\frac{1}{2(n+1)}\int_{0}^{x}q(t)dt\big)+ O(n^{-1}\eta(n)), \] where, in both cases, \(\eta\) satisfies \(\eta(\lambda)\rightarrow\) as \(\lambda\rightarrow \infty\).