Multiplicity of Sturm--Liouville eigenvalues (Q596249)

The authors study the Sturm-Liouville eigenequation \[ -(py')'+qy=\lambda wy\text{ on } J=(a,b)\tag{1} \] together with the boundary condition \[ A\cdot([y,f](a), [y,g](a))^T + B\cdot ([y,h](b),[y,k](b))={0\choose 0}.\tag{2} \] Here, \([\,,\,]\) denotes the Lagrange sesquilinear form and the matrices \(A\), \(B\) and the functions \(f,g,h,k\) satisfy the ``usual conditions'' described in detail in the article. The geometric multiplicity of the complex number \(A\) equals, by definition, the dimension of the space of solutions of (1) satisfying (2). In previous work, it was shown that for regular Sturm-Liouville eigenequations, the geometric multiplicity of an eigenvalue equals its algebraic multiplicity, it is the order of it as the root of a certain suitably chosen function. In the article, one considers the general (regular or singular) case where one only requires that the real-valued functions \(1/p\), \(q\), \(w\) are locally integrable and \(w > 0\). In the singular case, it becomes necessary to introduce a new function for the definition of algebraic multiplicity. This problem is solved in the article and then it is shown that again the geometric multiplicity equals the algebraic multiplicity provided both endpoints \(a\) and \(b\) are in the limit case.