The Allegretto-Piepenbrink theorem for strongly local Dirichlet forms (Q2389156)

The Allegretto-Piepenbrink theorem relates solutions and spectra of second order partial differential operators \(H\). One way to state it is that the supremum of those real \(E\) for which a nontrivial positive solution of \(H\Phi = E\Phi\) exists coincides with the infimum of the spectrum of \(H\). In noncompact cases this can be sharpened in the sense that nontrivial positive solutions of the above equation exist for all \(E \leq \inf\sigma(H)\). In the paper under review the authors consider the Allegretto-Piepenbrink theorem in a general setting \(H=H_0+\nu\), where \(H_0\) is the generator of a strongly local Dirichlet form and \(\nu\) is a suitable measure perturbation.