Comparison theorems for focal points of sytems of N-th order nonselfadjoint differential equations (Q1117382)

A comparison theorem is presented for focal points of \((1)\quad x^{(n)}-\sum^{n-1}_{\mu =0}P_{\mu}(t)x^{(\mu)}=0,\) where \(n\geq 2\), \(P_{\mu}(t)=(p^{\mu}_{ij}(t))\) are \(m\times m\) matrices with continuous elements on [a,b], \(a\geq 0\). No assumptions are made concerning the symmetry of any of the \(P_{\mu}\). If (1) is selfadjoint, the results presented are new. Also no assumptions are made concerning the sign of the elements of \(P_{\mu}\) making the results new in the scalar case. The focal point of (1) is compared to that of \((2)\quad y^{(n)}-(-1)^{n-k}\sum^{n-1}_{\mu =0}Q_{\mu}(t)y^{(\mu)}=0,\) where \(k\in \{1,...,n-1\}\) and \(Q_{\mu}(t)=(q^{\mu}_{ij}(t))\) are continuous \(m\times m\) matrices on [a,b] satisfying some positive conditions with respect to a cone. Two theorems are proved, namely, Theorem 2. Suppose \(\alpha\in [a,b]\), \(f_ Q(a)=b\) and \(| p^{\mu}_{ij}(t)| \leq | q^{\mu}_{ij}(t)|,\) for all \(t\in [a,b]\), \(i,j=1,...,m\), and all \(\mu =0,...,n-1\). Furthermore, assume that, for any \(i=1,...,m\), there exist \(j_ i\in \{1,...,m\}\), \(\mu_ i\in \{0,...,k-1\}\) such that \(| p^{\mu_ i}_{ij_ i}(b)| <| q^{\mu_ i}_{ij_ i}(b)|.\) Then \(f_ P(\alpha)>f_ Q(\alpha)\).