Asymptotic behavior of the eigenvalues of the one-dimensional weighted \(p\)-Laplace operator (Q1426925)

The eigenvalue problem \[ -(\psi_p (u'))' = \lambda r(x) \psi (u), \tag{1} \] where \(\psi_p (u) = | u| ^{p-2}u\) is considered on a bounded open set \(\Omega \subset \mathbb{R} \), with either Dirichlet or Neumann boundary conditions. The authors show that every eigenvalue \(\lambda\) of (1) can be obtained by the minimax principle for even functionals (Theorem 1.1), and then, using the Dirichlet--Neumann bracketing method (see Theorem 2.1), provide sharp estimates for the spectral counting function \(N(\lambda, \Omega)\) defined as the number of eigenvalues less than \(\lambda\). Namely, Theorem 1.2 gives the first term in the expansion of \(N(\lambda, \Omega)\) for large \(\lambda\), \[ N(\lambda, \Omega) = {\lambda^{1/p} \over \pi_p} \int_\Omega r^{1/p} \, dx + o(\lambda^{1/p}), \] where \(\pi_p = 2(p-1)^{1/p} \int_0^1 ds/(1-s^p)^{1/p}\). Finally, Theorem 1.6 provides an estimate of the remainder, \[ N(\lambda, \Omega) -{\lambda^{1/p} \over \pi_p} \int_\Omega r^{1/p} \, dx = O(\lambda^{\delta/p}), \] where \(\delta \in [\alpha,\, 1]\), where \(0< \alpha \leq 1\) depends in a subtle way on the smoothness, suitably defined, of the boundary \(\partial \Omega\) and the smoothness of the weight function \(r(x)\).