Spectral asymptotics for canonical systems (Q1703674)

Asymptotic formulas are derived for the Weyl-Titchmarsh \(m\)-function (and the spectral function) for the \(2 \times 2\) systems, \[ JY' + QY = zHY, \text{ where } J = \begin{pmatrix} 0&-1\\ 1&0 \end{pmatrix} \] on \(0 < x <L\), for some \(0<L \leq \infty\) where \(Q(x)\), and \(H(x)\) are locally integrable \(2 \times 2\) Hermitian matrices with real entries and \(H(x) \geq 0\) and \(H(x) \neq 0\) almost everywhere. Three examples are given for which the \(m\)-function \(m(z)\) can be computed explicitly. Then the main results characterize all ``canonical'' systems (as above but with \(Q=0\) and \(\operatorname{tr}H\) =1) for which the asymptotic behavior in the high energy limit (as \(z \to \infty\)) of \(m(z)\) matches that of one of the examples. This step uses a result of \textit{L. de Branges} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 99, 118--152 (1961; Zbl 0100.06901)] establishing a one to one continuous correspondence between ``canonical'' systems and their \(m\)-functions; the \(m\)-functions make up the subset of holomorphic functions on \(\mathbb{C}\setminus \mathbb{R}\) known as ``Herglotz-Nevanlinna'' functions with the topology of local uniform convergence. The remainder of the paper involves applications, some known, some new, to find spectral asymptotics for radial Dirac and Schrödinger operators and for Krein strings and generalized indefinite strings.