Eigenvalue asymptotics for a non-selfadjoint elliptic problem involving an indefinite weight (Q1898306)

The author considers a regular elliptic problem (in the sense of Agmon) in a bounded domain \(\Omega\) in \(\mathbb{R}^n\), generated by an elliptic operator of order \(2m>n\), \(L(x,D)= \sum_{|\alpha|\leq 2m}a_\alpha(x)D^\alpha\), and suitable boundary operators \(B_j\), \(1\leq j\leq m\). It is assumed that \(a_\alpha\in C^{|\alpha|-1,1}(\Omega)\) for \(|\alpha|\geq 1\) and \(a_0\in L^\infty(\Omega)\), that \(\Omega\) is of class \(C^{2m,1}\), and that \(a_\alpha\) is real for \(|\alpha|=2m\). The closed operator \(A\), defined by this boundary value problem in \(L^2(\Omega)\) is Fredholm. For \(A\) the author considers a weighted eigenvalue problem, \[ Au= \lambda Mu,\quad u\in{\mathcal D}(A),\quad\lambda\in\mathbb{C}, \] where \(M\) denotes multiplication by a real function \(m\) in \(L^\infty(\Omega)\). Under the crucial technical assumption that \(M\) is invertible in \(L^2(\Omega)\) -- which excludes the case of a smooth \(m\) in \(\overline\Omega\) with both positive and negative values -- the author describes the first-order asymptotic behavior of weighted eigenvalues with positive and negative real part, respectively.