Direct and inverse spectral theory of singular left-definite Sturm-Liouville operators (Q432446)

The author considers the left-definite Sturm-Liouville problem NEWLINE\[NEWLINE -\frac{d}{dx}\left(p(x)\frac{d}{dx}y(x)\right)+q(x)y(x)=zr(x)y(x) NEWLINE\]NEWLINE on some interval \((a,b)\), where the real valued function \(r\) is allowed to change sign and \(p,q\) are assumed to be non-negative. First, he gives a review of linear relations associated with the problem in a modified Sobolev space (including self-adjoint realizations with separate boundary conditions). Then he developes a Weyl-Titchmarsh theory for such self-adjoint relations. Further, there are introduced some de Branges spaces associated with the problem, and there are provided crucial properties of these spaces, which are then needed in the proof of an inverse uniqueness result. This inverse uniqueness result applies to the isospectral problem of the Camassa-Holm equation.