Asymptotics of eigenvalues for regular Sturm-Liouville problems (Q1329310)

The aim of the paper is to derive asymptotic approximations for the eigenvalues of the Sturm-Liouville problem on \([a,b]\), \(-y''+ qy= \lambda y\), \(\alpha_ 1 y(a)- \alpha_ 2 y'(a)=0\), \(\beta_ 1 y(b)- \beta_ 2 y'(b)= 0\). One considers the phase angle function \(\theta\) defined by \(\tan\theta(x):= \lambda^{{1\over 2}}(y(x,\lambda)/y'(x, \lambda))\). It satisfies the first order differential equation \(\theta'= \lambda^{1\over 2}- {1\over 2}\lambda^{-{1\over 2}} q+{1\over 2} \lambda^{-{1\over 2}} q\cos 2\theta\). One proves estimates of \(\theta(b)- \theta(a)\) for large \(\lambda\) from which one derives an asymptotic approximation for the eigenvalues. The method is applied in the case of \(q(t)= t^{-{1\over 2}}\) on \([0,1]\), with Dirichlet conditions.