Remainder estimates for the asymptotics of elliptic eigenvalue problems with indefinite weights (Q1095316)

The authors consider the eigenvalue problem \(Au=\lambda r(x)u\), \(x\in \Omega\) with Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions, where A is a positive selfadjoint elliptic operator of order 2m on the bounded open set \(\Omega \subset {\mathbb{R}}^ k\). r is a weight function which is allowed to change sign or to be discontinuous. The authors study the asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues. In an earlier paper by the authors [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 295, 305-324 (1986; Zbl 0602.35084)] the leading term for the asymptotics of the eigenvalues has been determined. In the present paper the authors obtain, under more stringent assumptions, the corresponding remainder estimates. We give the main result: Let \(N^+(\lambda)\) be the number of positive eigenvalues less than \(\lambda >0\) and \(\Omega_+:= \{x\in \Omega:\) \(r(x)>0\}\). Then under suitable conditions on A, \(\Omega\), r \[ N^+(\lambda)=\lambda^{k/2m}\cdot \int_{\Omega_+} r(x)^{k/2m}\cdot \mu_ A'(x) dx+O(| \lambda |^{(k- 1)/2m+\delta})\quad as\quad \lambda \to \infty, \] where \(\delta >0\) and \(\mu_ A'\) is the Browder-Gårding density associated with the principal part of A. - An analogous formula is given for \(N^-(\lambda)\) as \(\lambda\to -\infty.\) The method used in this paper is based on the well known ``maximum- minimum principle''. The results are first established for the (non- negative) Laplacian and then extended to A.