Necessary and sufficient conditions for the density of transmission eigenvalues (Q2124522)

The eigenvalue problem \[ - y'' + q (x) y = \lambda y, \qquad x \in (0, 1)\] with boundary conditions \[ y (0) = 0, \quad y (1) \cos \sqrt \lambda a - y' (1) \frac{\sin \sqrt \lambda a}{\sqrt \lambda} = 0 \] is considered, where \(a > 0\) and \(q \in L^2 ( 0, 1)\) is real-valued. The corresponding eigenvalues can be expressed as squares of zeroes of the characteristic function \(D\), i.e.\ \(D (\rho) = 0\) if and only if \(\lambda = \rho^2\) is an eigenvalue of the above problem; non-real eigenvalues may occur if \(q\) is not identically zero. The current paper focuses on the density of eigenvalues, i.e.\ the expression \[ \lim_{r \to \infty} \frac{n_D (r)}{r}, \] where \(n_D (r)\) is the number of zeroes of \(D\) within the closed disk of radius \(r\) around the origin. This density is computed in the cases that the potential \(q\) is non-zero, respectively zero, in a neighborhood of the right endpoint \(x = 1\).