On the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions of an interface Sturm-Liouville system (Q1898296)

This paper deals with interface Sturm Liouville systems of the form \(y''(x) + \lambda p(x) y(x) = 0\), \(- 1 \leq x \leq 1\), \(y(- 1) = y(1) = 0\), where \(p\) is piecewise continuous, with interface conditions \(sy'(0) = y'_+ (0)\), \(s > 0\), \(ty_- (0) = y_+ (0)\), \(t > 0\). Some properties of the first eigenfunction of this problem are studied by transforming the interface boundary eigenvalue problem to a usual boundary eigenvalue problem. The main results concern the monotonicity of the first eigenvalue. First the dependence on a certain parameter \(a\), \(0 \leq a \leq 1\), is studied which arises on applying some symmetrization method to \(p\) that associates a class of functions \(p(\cdot, a)\) with \(p\). Secondly the monotonicity with respect to the quantity \({s \over t}\) is investigated.