Eigenvalues of periodic Sturm Liouville problems (Q503424)

The authors study the eigenvalues of the problem \[ -(py')'+qy=\lambda wy \] with boundary conditions \[ y(a+kh)=e^{i\gamma}y(a) \text{, } (py')(a+kh)=e^{i\gamma}(py')(a) \] for some given real numbers, \(a\), \(h\), with \(0<h<\infty\). The coefficients, \(p,q,r\), are real-valued and are assumed to satisfy the usual regularity conditions. The new results concern the case where the coefficients are also \(h\)-periodic, though some known eigenvalue inequalities for general coefficients are also reviewed. For each integer \(K>2\), the authors find values of \(\gamma \in (0,\pi )\) for which eigenvalues for \(k=1\) are also eigenvalues for \(k=K\) in either of the cases \(\gamma =0\) or \(\gamma =\pi\), the periodic and semi-periodic cases respectively.