A Prüfer angle approach to semidefinite Sturm-Liouville problems with coupling boundary conditions (Q2435176)

It is known that the second-order differential equation \[ -(p(x)y')'+q(x)y=\lambda r(x)y, \, x\in[a,b]\subset\mathbb R \tag{1} \] can be handled as an equivalent system \[ y'=z/p, z'=(q-\lambda r)y, \, x\in[a,b]\subset\mathbb R, \] where \( r,p>0\) (definite case). In this paper, following Atkinson's notation, the authors consider the differential equation (1) as \[ y'=sz, z'=(q-\lambda r)y, \, x\in[a,b]\subset\mathbb R, \tag{2} \] but relaxing definiteness to the semi-definiteness case \(r\geq0, s\geq0\) subject to the coupled boundary condition \[ \left(\begin{matrix} y(b)\\ z(b)\end{matrix}\right)=K\left(\begin{matrix} y(a)\\ z(a)\end{matrix}\right), \tag{3} \] where \(K=(k_{ij})\) is a real \(2\times2\) matrix with \(\det K=1\). Using a method based on the Prüfer transformation, the authors study the eigenvalues of the problem (2), (3): existence of eigenvalues, oscillation and comparison principles, asymptotics and interlacing.