Eigenvalue estimates for singular left-definite Sturm-Liouville operators (Q2276076)

Let \(r, p^{-1}, q \in L_{loc}^1(\mathbb{R})\) real, \(p > 0\) a.e., and let \(\tau\) be the differential expression \(\tau = \frac{1}{r} \bigl ( - \frac{d}{dx} p \frac{d}{dx} + q \bigr)\). In this article, \(\tau\) is indefinite, that is, there exists some \(c \in \mathbb{R}\) such that the weight function \(r\) is positive on \((c, \infty)\) and negative on \((-\infty, c)\). Let \(l\) be the corresponding definite differential expression, that is, \(l = \frac{1}{|r|} \bigl ( - \frac{d}{dx} p \frac{d}{dx} + q \bigr)\). Suppose \(l\) is in the limit point case at both singular endpoints \(- \infty\) and \(\infty\), or, equivalently, that the maximum differential operator \(A\) associated with \(l\) in the weighted Hilbert space \(L_{|r|}^2 (\mathbb{R})\) is selfadjoint. Let \(J\) denote the multiplication by \(\operatorname{sgn}r\), then formally, \(\tau = Jl\), and \(JA\) is the maximal operator associated with \(\tau\) in \(L_{|r|}^2(\mathbb{R})\). Let \(n_A(a, b)\) denote the number of eigenvalues of \(A\) in \((a, b)\). The main result of this paper is that in the left-definite case (i.e., \(\min \sigma(A) > 0\)) for \(0 \leq a < b\), and if \((a, b) \cap \sigma_{\text{ess}}(A) = \emptyset\), then \(|n_A(a, b) - [n_{JA} (-b, -a) + n_{JA} (a, b)]| \leq 3\) provided the corresponding quantities are finite; otherwise, \(n_A(a, b) = \infty\) if and only if \(n_{JA} (-b, -a) + n_{JA} (a, b)] = \infty\). Under the additional assumption that \(p, q\) are even and \(r\) is odd, the above estimate can be further improved.