Linear second order ordinary differential equations with nonsmooth coefficients (Q1363594)

The subject of this paper is a Dirichlet boundary value problem for a linear second order ordinary differential operator with coefficients belonging to certain \(L^p\)-spaces. Its solution is to be understood in the sense of Sobolev. It is shown that the Fredholm alternative holds for this problem. Under the assumption that the corresponding homogeneous problem has only the trivial solution the author introduces a Green's function and proves its existence, uniqueness and some basic properties. As a preliminary tool the existence and uniqueness theorem is proved for solutions of the initial value problem. Some general properties of solution sets of homogeneous equations are established by generalizing the Liouville theorem.