Hankel operators that commute with second-order differential operators (Q2481873)

Let \(\Gamma_\phi\) be a bounded selfadjoint Hankel operator on \(L^2((0,\infty))\) with kernel \(\varphi(\cdot+t)\), \[ (\Gamma_\varphi f)(s)=\int_0^\infty \varphi(s+t)f(t)\,dt, \] and let \(L\) be a second order differential operator of the form \(\frac{d}{dx}a(\cdot)\frac{d}{dx}+ b(\cdot)\), where \(a\) and \(b\) are three times differentiable functions such that \(a'''=A a'\), \(b'''=B b'\) and \(a(0)=0\). The main result of the paper provides sufficient conditions for the coefficients \(a\) and \(b\) in terms of a differential equation such that \(\Gamma_\varphi L f=L\Gamma_\varphi f\) holds for all \(f\in C^\infty_c((0,\infty))\). For the functions \(a\) and \(b\), the quadratic case (\(A=B=0\)), the hyperbolic case (\(A,B>0\)), and the trigonometric case (\(A,B<0\)) are discussed in detail. In the last section of the paper, singular numbers of Hankel operators are studied. In the case that the kernel \(\varphi\) is locally holomorphic and satisfies certain growth bounds, some estimates for the decay of the \(s\)-numbers of \(\Gamma_\varphi\) are obtained.