Asymptotics of the eigenvalues of a fourth order differential operator with eigenvalue dependent and periodic boundary conditions (Q6137344)

On the interval [0, a] the fourth order differential equation \[ y^{(4)} ( \lambda , x ) - ( g(y) ') ' (\lambda , x ) = \lambda ^2 y(\lambda , x ) \] together with the boundary conditions \[ y(\lambda , 0 )- \varepsilon y(\lambda , a) = 0, y^{ (3)} (\lambda , 0 ) - \varepsilon y^{(3)} (\lambda , a) = 0, y' (\lambda , 0) = 0, y'' (\lambda , a) + i\alpha \lambda y'(\lambda , a) = 0 \] is considered, where \(\lambda \) is an eigenvalue parameter, \(g\in C^1[0,a]\) is real-valued, \(\varepsilon =\pm1\), and \(\alpha >0\). This boundary value problem has an operator representation \(L(\lambda ) = \lambda ^ 2 M -i\alpha \lambda K - A\) in \(L^2(0,a) \oplus\mathbb{C}\), where \(K\) and \(M\) are bounded self-adjoint operators with the block matrix representations \(K=\begin{pmatrix} 0&0\\ 0&1 \end{pmatrix} \), \(M=\begin{pmatrix} I&0\\ 0&0 \end{pmatrix} \), whereas \(A\) is unbounded with domain \[ \mathcal{D}( A ) =\left\{\widetilde y =\begin{pmatrix} y\\ y'(a) \end{pmatrix} : y \in W _2^4( 0, a ),\ y^{[j]} (0) - \varepsilon y^{[j]} ( a ) = y' (0) = 0,\ j\in\{0,3\}\right\} \] and \(W_2^4\) denotes the standard Sobolev space of order \(4\). Here the boundary conditions are chosen in such a way that also \(A\) is self-adjoint. The spectrum of the operator pencil consists of a countably infinite number of eigenvalues of finite multiplicity. In this case, when all of \(A\), \(K\), \(M\) are self-adjoint, the spectrum has a certain symmetry, and the purpose of this publication is to give an asymptotic representation of the eigenvalues. It is shown that, with proper counting, there are two eigenvalues and four sequences of eigenvalues \((\lambda _{k,j,p})_{k=1}^\infty \), \(j=0,1\), \(p= 1,2\), where \(\lambda _{k,j,p}= (\mu _{k,j,p})^2\) and the asymptotic representations \[ \mu _{k,j,p}=i^j\left[ \frac{2k\pi }a+\tau _0(p)+\frac{\tau _1(p)}k \right] +o(k^{-1}), \] with explicitly given complex numbers \(\tau _0(p)\) and \(\tau _1(p)\).