Lidskii angles and Sturmian theory for linear Hamiltonian systems on compact interval (Q2048577)

The authors explore some aspects of Sturmian theory for linear Hamiltonian systems and, in particular, the oscillation properties of the system \(y' = J H(t) y\) for \(t \in I\) where \(I\) is a fixed interval in \(\mathbb{R}\), \(H: I \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^{2n \times 2n}\) is a symmetric continuous matrix-valued function, and \(J\) is the canonical \(2n \times 2n\) real skew-symmetric matrix. The authors generally assume a Legendre condition, i.e., \(B(t) \geq 0\) for all \(t \in I\), where \(B(t)\) is the right lower \(n \times n\) block of the matrix \(H(t)\). Their approach makes use of Lidskij angles (originally defined in [\textit{V. B. Lidskij}, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR 102, 877--880 (1955; Zbl 0064.08902)]), which have been used previously to investigate oscillatory properties for similar systems. The authors define the Lidskij angles in terms of the normalized conjoined bases of the symplectic fundamental matrix for \(H\). They begin by reviewing results about Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverses and some properties of conjoined bases. They then look at the properties of the Lidskij angles associated with \(H\), especially their monotonicity under the Legendre condition. The paper concludes with the derivation of the Sturmian separation theorems in terms of the Lidskij angles. Some of the notation used in the paper is nonstandard, and is not explained or properly defined. Accordingly, readers are advised they might need to look at the cited references for more details.