Dissipative boundary conditions for ordinary differential operators (Q2388208)

The author considers the operator \(L_0\) in \(L^2(0,1)\) generated by the differential expression \(l_0(y) = (-i)^my^{(m)}\) and boundary conditions \[ U_j(y) = \sum_{k=0}^{m-1}\left( a_{jk}y^{(k)}(a) + b_{jk} y^{(k)}(b)\right) = 0,\;\;\;j=1,2,\cdots,m. \] The goal is to obtain all the boundary conditions which make \(L_0\) dissipative (i.e., \(\text{Im} (L_0y,y) \geq 0 \) for all \(y \in D(L_0) = \{y\in W^m_2[0,1], U_j(y) = 0, j=1,2,\cdots,m\}\), the domain of \(L_0\)), and to determine whether or not these boundary conditions are regular in the sense of Birkhoff. It is proved that the dissipative even-ordered operators do have regular boundary conditions, but when \(m\) is odd, an example is given of a dissipative operator with boundary conditions which are not regular.