The limit behavior of the spectrum for large parameter values in a model problem (Q1277510)

The author studies the Sturm-Liouville problem \[ \varepsilon y'' = (q(x)-\lambda)y, \quad y(-1) = y(1) = 0, \] where \(q(x)\) is a real smooth function, \(\lambda \) is the spectral parameter, and \(\varepsilon \) is a small pure imaginary parameter. This is a simplified model problem for the Orr-Sommerfeld problem of hydrodynamics, where \(\varepsilon = -i/(\alpha R)\) (\(\alpha >0\) is the wave number and \(R\) is the Reynolds number, which is assumed to be large). The behavior of the eigenvalues to the problem above, as \(\varepsilon \) tends to \(0\) along the negative imaginary semiaxis, is described.