Some criteria for discreteness of spectrum of half-linear fourth order Sturm-Liouville problem (Q2410979)

Let \(p>1\) and \(\varphi(s):=|s|^{p-2}s\) for \(s\neq 0\), \(\varphi(0)= 0\). Let \(\rho,\sigma: [0,\infty)\to (0,\infty)\) be continuous functions, \(\rho\) satisfying an additional integrability condition involving the dual index \(p'\). The authors consider the equation \[ (\rho\varphi(u''))''-\lambda\sigma\varphi(u)= 0,\tag{1} \] regarding as a solution a function \(u\in C^2(0,\infty)\) with \(\rho\varphi(u'')\in C^2(0,\infty)\) such that \[ \int^\infty_0 \rho|u''|^p<\infty.\tag{2} \] Moreover, \(u\) and \(u'\) should vanish at infinity and satisfy a homogeneous boundary condition at \(0\). They say that (1) has the \(D\)-property if the following three properties hold: (i) The set of all eigenvalues of (1) forms an icreasing sequence \((\lambda_n)\) with \(\lambda_1>0\) and \(\lambda_n\to\infty\) as \(n\to\infty\). (ii) The set of all normalized eigenfunctions associated with a given eigenvalue is finite. (iii) Every eigenfunction has finitely many zeros. They show that (1) has the \(D\)-property iff the embedding of a weighted Sobolev space generated by (2) into the \(L^p\)-space with weight \(\sigma\) is compact. In turn, this embedding is compact iff the \(\limsup\) of two functions \(A_1\), \(A_2\) (each the product of integrals involving \(\sigma\) and \(\rho\)) is zero at infinity. \(A_1\) and \(A_2\) play an important role in deriving (non-) oscillation results for (1) with the help of weighted Hardy-type inequalities.