Spectral expansion series with parenthesis for the nonself-adjoint periodic differential operators (Q1615709)

Consider the differential expression \[ l(y) = y^{(n)} + p_2 y^{(n-2)} +\dots p_n y \] with complex valued \(1\)-periodic functions \(p_2, p_3,\dots, p_n\) on \((-\infty, \infty)\) such that \(p_k^{(n-k)} \in L_1[0,1]\) for \(k = 2,3,\dots, n\). Then, \(l(y)\) generates an operator \(L\) in \(L_2(-\infty, \infty)\) and additionally for \(t \in [0, 2 \pi)\) an operator \(L_t\) in \(L_2[0,1]\) associated with the \(t\)-periodic boundary conditions \(y^{(\nu -1)}(1) - e^{it} y^{(\nu -1)}(0)=0(\nu = 1,2,\dots, n)\). For the spectra it is known that \(\sigma (L)\) coincides with the union of all \(\sigma(L_t)\). The present paper studies the question whether elements \(f \in L_2(-\infty, \infty)\) allow the spectral decomposition \[ f(x) = \frac{1}{2 \pi} \sum_{k \in \mathbb Z} \int_{[0,2\pi)}\alpha_k(t) \psi_{k,t}(x) \, dt \] where \(\psi_{k,t}\) are the normalized eigenfunctions of \(L_t\) and \(\alpha_k(t)\) are certain complex values (also determined by the eigenfunctions). The possible appearance of spectral singularities (where -- roughly speaking -- the norms of spectral projections tend to infinity) does not recommend the application of the theory of spectral operators in this non-self-adjoint case. Therefore, the terminology of a so-called essential spectral singularity (ESS) and a singular quasimomentum (SQ) is introduced. As the main result it is shown that the above spectral decomposition is valid for all \(f\) in a certain subspace \(E \subset L_2(-\infty, \infty)\) with convergence in \(L_2(a,b)\) for all \(-\infty < a < b < \infty\) if and only if ESS does not appear (in particular not at infinity). Furthermore, if \(n\) is odd and ESS does appear then a finite number of indices in the above decomposition must be replaced by some additional term (parenthesis). If \(n\) is even then the situation is even more involved.