Schrödinger operators with indefinite weight functions: Asymptotics of eigenvalues with remainder estimates (Q1328966)

The authors study asymptotic estimates with a remainder term for the counting function of the Schrödinger operator with an indefinite weight. More precisely they study the eigenvalue problem \((- \Delta + q)u = \lambda ru\) in an unbounded domain \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^ k\) with Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions, a real-valued weight \(r\) which changes sign in \(\Omega\), a positive potential \(q\) and under some technical assumptions they prove that the number of positive eigenvalues less than \(\lambda\) is \[ N^ + (\lambda) = (2\pi)^{-k} B_ k \int_{\Omega_ \lambda} \bigl( \lambda r(x) - q(x) \bigr)^{k/2} dx + O \bigl( \{\Omega_ \lambda\} \lambda^{(k - I)/2 + \delta} \bigr) \] as \(\lambda \to \infty\), where \(B_ k\) denotes the volume of the unit ball in \(\mathbb{R}^ k\), \[ \{\Omega_ \lambda\} : = \max \left( | \Omega_ \lambda |,\;\int_{\Omega_ \lambda} (r_ +)^{k/2 dx} \right), \qquad \Omega_ \lambda : \left\{ x \in \Omega : q(x) < \lambda r(x) \right\}, \quad \delta \in (0,I/2) \] The authors also generalize this result to positive elliptic operators of even order with variable coefficients. The paper extends previous results of the authors (1986, 1987) only with leading term of asymptotics. For the proof the authors used the max-min principle and the method of Dirichlet-Neumann bracketing.