On the essential spectrum of a class of singular matrix differential operators. I: Quasiregularity conditions and essential self-adjointness (Q1863969)

The authors study the essential spectrum of singular symmetric matrix differential operators \(L\) of the form \[ \left( \begin{matrix} - \frac{\text{ d}}{\text{ d}x} \rho(x) \frac{\text{ d}}{\text{ d}x} & \frac{\text{ d}}{\text{ d}x} \frac{\beta(x)}x \\ - \frac{\beta(x)}x & \frac{m(x)}{x^2} \end{matrix} \right) \] on the interval \([0,1]\). This model illustrates a phenomenon observed before in problems motivated by magnetohydrodynamics: the essential spectrum of such an operator consists of two parts, one part which can be obtained as the limit of the essential spectra of approximating operators on \([\varepsilon,1]\) for \(\varepsilon \to 0\) and another part which is due to the singularities of the problem and cannot be obtained in this way. The main result is a description of the whole essential spectrum in terms of the coefficients \(\rho, \beta\) and \(m\). It is proved by making heavy use of Weyl's theorem (that the essential spectrum does not change under compact perturbations) and of the fact that the spectrum of \(L\) is closely related to the spectrum of its Schur complement (called Hain-Lüst operator in this paper). This allows the transition to a simpler asymptotic operator for the Schur complement. The essential spectrum of this simpler operator the resolvent of which is a separable sum of two pseudo-differential operators can be determined by calculating the essential spectrum of two multiplication operators.