A general left-definite theory for certain self-adjoint operators with applications to differential equations (Q1614727)

Let \(A\geq k > 0\) be a selfadjoint operator in a Hilbert space \(H\) with inner product \((\cdot,\cdot)\). It is shown that \(A\) generates a continuum of Hilbert spaces \(\{H_r\}_{r>0}\) (called left-definite Hilbert spaces) and a continuum of selfadjoint operators \(\{A_r\}_{r>0}\) (called left-definite operators). Each space \(H_r\) can be seen as the closure of the domain \(D(A^r)\) of the selfadjoint operator \(A^r\) in the topology generated from the inner product \((A^r x, y) (x, y \in D(A^r))\). Furthermore, each \(A_r\) is a unique selfadjoint restriction of \(A\) in \(H_r\). The domain of each \(A_r\) is characterized in terms of another left-definite space. It is shown that the point spectrum, continuous spectrum, and resolvent set of a selfadjoint operator \(A\) and each of its associated left-definite operators \(A_r (r>0)\) are identical. Moreover, if \(\{\phi \}_{n=0}^\infty\) is a complete orthogonal set of eigenfunctions of \(A\) in \(H\), then \(\{\phi \}_{n=0}^\infty\) is a complete orthogonal set of eigenfunctions of \(A_r\) in \(H_r\) for any \(r>0\). Two applications are included. The first one is operator \(A: l^2\to l^2\), \[ Ax=(x_1,2x_2,\dots,nx_n,\dots). \] The second is selfadjoint operator \(A\) in \(L^2((0,\infty),t^\alpha e^{-t})\) corresponding to the classical second order Laguerre differential expression \[ {1\over t^\alpha e^{-t}}(-(t^{\alpha+1}e^{-t}y'(t))'+kt^{\alpha}e^{-t}t(t)), \quad t\in(0,\infty). \] For the operator \(A\), the left-definite spaces and left-definite operators are explicitly found. The selfadjoint operator \(A\) has the Laguerre polynomials as eigenfunctions.