Spectral properties of the complex Airy operator on the half-line (Q2364482)

The authors consider the complex Airy operator \({\mathcal L}_c := - d^2/dx + cx\) on the half-line \({\mathbb R_+}\) with a complex constant \(c\) and with Dirichlet boundary conditions at \(0\). The spectrum of \({\mathcal L}_c\) turns out to be discrete, consisting of a sequence of simple eigenvalues. As the main result it is shown that if \(|\arg c| < \frac{5}{6}\pi\) then the associated eigenfunctions form a complete and minimal system in the space \(L_2({\mathbb R_+})\). In a second step it takes less effort to prove a similar result for the more general operator \(L := - d^2/dx + p(x)\) with a complex function \(p\): Conditions on \(p\) are obtained such that the root functions of \(L\) form a complete system in \(L_2({\mathbb R_+})\). However, it turns out that the conditions on \(p\) are so restrictive that an application of the second result to \({\mathcal L}_c\) gives the completeness property only for \(|\arg c| < \frac{2}{3}\pi\). Consequently, the first result is stronger for \({\mathcal L}_c\) than the second.