Difference Sturm-Liouville problems in the imaginary direction (Q361716)

The article deals with the operator \[ {\mathfrak L}f(s) = A(s)f(s + i) + (A(s) + B(s))f(s) + B(s)f(s - i) \] in a Hilbert space \(L^2\) on \({\mathbb R}\) with a positive weight \(w(s)\); the domain of this operator, by definition, is a subspace \(H \subset L^2\) of functions \(f(s)\) holomorphic in the strip \(-1 < \text{Im}\, s < 1\) smoothing up to the boundary \(\text{Im}\, s = \pm1\) and sufficiently rapidly decreasing as \(|s| \to \infty\). More exactly, it is assumed that \[ A(s) = \frac{\nu(s + i)}{\nu(s)}, \quad B(s) = \frac{\mu(s - i)}{\mu(s)}, \quad w(s) = \frac1{2\pi} \mu(s)\nu(s), \] where \[ \mu(s) = e^{cs} \, \frac{\prod\limits_{k=1}^m \Gamma(a_k + is)}{\prod\limits_{l=1}^n \Gamma(b_l + is)}, \quad \nu(s) = \overline{\mu(\overline{s})} = e^{cs} \, \frac{\prod\limits_{k=1}^m \Gamma(\overline{a}_k - is)}{\prod\limits_{l=1}^n \Gamma(\overline{b}_l - is)}. \] It is proved that the operator \({\mathfrak l}\) is symmetric. In the cases when \[ \mu(s) = \frac1{\Gamma(is)} \;\;\text{and} \;\;\mu(s) = \frac{\Gamma(a + is)}{\Gamma(2is)}, \] the spectral decompositions are given, respectively, using the inverse Kontorovich-Lebedev transform and the inverse Wimp transform with Whittaker kernel. Further, the difference operator \[ {\mathfrak L}f(s) = i\bigg(\frac\alpha2 + is\bigg)f(s - i) + 2 \cosh \varphi \, sf(s) - i\bigg(\frac\alpha2 - is\bigg)f(s + i) \] \bigg(with \(w(s) = e^{\pi s} \bigg|\Gamma\bigg(\displaystyle\frac\alpha2 + is\bigg)\bigg|^2\)\bigg) is considered. In the end of the article, an example of a symmetric and non self-adjoint operator with the index \((1,1)\) is given; its self-adjoint extensions are described.