Spectrum and spectral singularities of a quadratic pencil of a Schrödinger operator with a general boundary condition (Q1283958)

This is the first one from a series of two papers of the authors devoted to the study of spectral properties of quadratic pencils of Schrödinger operators in \(L^2(\mathbb{R}_+)\). The operators considered generalize the nonselfadjoint Sturm-Liouville operator, the Klein-Gordon \(s\)-wave operator and the operators studied, among others, by \textit{M. Jaulent} and \textit{C. Jean} in [Commun. Math. Phys. 28, 177-220 (1972)]. More precisely, the differential expression and the boundary condition which define the operator \(L\) are \[ l(y)=-y''+\bigl[q(x) +2\lambda p(x)-\lambda^2 \bigr]y, \quad\int^\infty_0 K(x)y(x) dx+\alpha y'(0)-\beta y(0)=0, \] with \(q,p\) and \(K\) complex-valued functions, \(p\)-continuously differentiable and \(K\) at least square integrable, \(\alpha, \beta \in\mathbb{C}\), \(|\alpha |+| \beta|\neq 0\). The main results proved state that if \(\lim_{x\to \infty} p(x)=0\) and if there exists a constant \(\varepsilon>0\) such that \[ \sup_{x\in\mathbb{R}_+} \Bigl\{e^{\varepsilon \sqrt x} \biggl[\bigl| q(x)\bigr |+\bigl | p'(x)\bigr| +\bigl| K(x) \bigr| \biggr] \Bigr\}< \infty, \tag{1} \] then the continuous spectrum of \(L\) is equal with \((-\infty, \infty)\) and the operator \(L\) has a finite number of eigenvalues and spectral singularities, each of them being of finite multiplicity. A weaker conclusion holds if the assumption (1) is relaxed to the following one: there exist a positive constant \(\varepsilon\) and a constant \(\delta>0\) such that \[ \sup_{x\in\mathbb{R}_+}\Bigl\{e^{\varepsilon x^\delta} \biggl[ \bigl| q(x)\bigr| +\bigl| p'(x)\bigr| +\bigl| K(x)\bigr | \biggr]\Bigr\} <\infty. \] The behaviour of principal functions corresponding to the eigenvalues and to the spectral singularities of \(L\) is also studied. The paper ends with a short discussion of the particular cases mentioned at the beginning of the review.