On the spectrality and spectral expansion of the non-self-adjoint Mathieu-Hill operator in \(L_2(-\infty, \infty)\) (Q2300991)

Let \(H(a,b)\) be the Hill operator with the potential \[q(x):=a\exp(-i2\pi x)+b\exp(i2\pi x),\] where \(a\) and \(b\) are complex numbers. The author's central result is the following (for the unexplained notions reference must be made to the paper itself) Theorem. \(H(a,b)\) has no spectral singularity at infinity and is an asymptotically spectral operator if and only if \[|a|=|b|\ \text{ and }\inf|(q/\pi)\arg(ab)-(2p-1)|\ne 0\] (the infimum extending over all natural numbers \(p,q)\). The theorem has the following notable Corollary. If \(ab\) is a real number, then \(H(a,b)\) is a spectral operator (in the sense of Dunford) if and only if it is self-adjoint. The proof of the theorem consists of a very elaborate investigation of the eigenvalues of the \(t\)-periodic problem associated with \(H(a,b)\). Depending on \(a\) and \(b\), the form of the spectral expansion of \(H(a,b)\) is classified in detail in the final section of the paper.