On the singular Rayleigh functional (Q1387301)

The authors study spectral properties of the operator function \(L(\lambda)=A(\lambda)- I\), \(\lambda\in (a,b)\), where \(A(\lambda)\) is a compact self-adjoint operator depending continuously on \(\lambda\). It is assumed that, for any \(u\neq 0\), the function \(f_u(\lambda)= (L(\lambda)u,u)\) increases in a neighborhood of any of its zeros (if they exist). In the present note a kind of singular Rayleigh functional is constructed and the following results are proved: 1) the spectrum of \(L(\lambda)\) on \((a,b)\) is discrete; 2) the only possible accumulation point of eigenvalues is the point \(\lambda=b\) (a criterion for accumulation is also obtained); 3) variational principles are stated for eigenvalues.