Global transformations preserving Sturm-Liouville spectral data (Q2401527)

The inverse spectral problem for the one-dimensional Schrödinger equation \[ S_p y := -y'' + py = \lambda y \text{ on } (0,1) \] with separated boundary conditions is well studied and important results in this area are recalled at the end of the present paper. However, this paper essentially consideres the Sturm-Liouville equation of impedance form \[ -\Delta_q f := -\rho^{-2}(\rho^2 f')' + uf = \lambda f \text{ on } (0,1) \] with separated boundary conditions, where \(\rho(x) := e^{\int_0^x q(t) \, dt}\) and \(u\) depends on \(q\) in a certain way. As the main result it is shown that the mapping \(q \rightarrow p := q' + q^2 + u - \int_0^1(q^2 + u) \, dt\) defines a real analytic isomorphism between certain Sobolev and \(L^2\) spaces and the associated operators \(-\Delta_q\) and \(S_p\) are unitarily equivalent by the Liouville transformation \(f \rightarrow \rho f\). In particular, the boundary conditions and the spectral data are preserved. In a second step this result is used in order to obtain inverse spectral results for \(-\Delta_q\) from known results for \(S_p\). This is carried out in detail for different classes of separated boundary conditions.