HELP integral and series inequalities (Q4026440)

[For the entire collection see Zbl 0746.00079.] (HELP stands for Hardy, Everitt, Littlewood and Pólya.) This is a survey paper too rich in contents, with intricate results and conditions, to allow details in such a review (of a review). Suffice to say that the HELP integral inequalities are of the form \[ \begin{multlined} \left(\int^ b_ a(q(x)f(x)^ 2+p(x)f'(x)^ 2)dx\right)^ 2\\ \leq K\int^ b_ aw(x)f(x)^ 2dx\int^ b_ aw(x)^{-1}(q(x)f(x)-p'(x)f'(x)- p(x)f''(x))^ 2dx.\end{multlined} \] (The integrals may be improper.) Great emphasis is put on determining the (best possible) constant \(K\). In most cases this proves to be too difficult analytically but a good numerical method is offered. Connections are established with Sturm-Liouville differential equations, the spectral theory of their differential operators and orthogonal polynomials. The analogous inequalities for infinite series are given a similar treatment. \{There are several misprints, more amusing than troublesome, such as ``in principal'' in line 19 on page 293. Sections 3.3.1 and 3.3.2 are misnumbered to 3.2.1 and 3.2.2. In line 10 on page 290, (3.18) should stand rather than (3.17).\}.