Transmutation operators method for Sturm-Liouville equations in impedance form. I: Construction and analytical properties (Q6147832)

The paper is concerned with transmutation (transformation) operator theory for the Sturm-Liouville equation in the impedance form \[ D(a^2(x)Du(x))+\lambda a^2(x)u(x) = 0, \quad -b < x < b, \tag{1} \] where \(D = \frac{d}{dx}\), \(a(x)\) is a complex-valued impedance function of the class \(W^{1,\infty}(-b,b)\), \(\lambda\) is the spectral parameter. The authors reduce equation (1) to the form \[ -y''(x) + q(x)y'(x) = \lambda y(x) \tag{2} \] and then obtain intogro-differential representations for solutions of equation (2) in terms of transmutation operators directly, without reduction to the Schroedinger form. The transmutation operator kernels are constructed by iterations and their properties are studied. In particular, the boundedness and the invertibility of the transmutation operators in appropriate functional spaces are proved. Furthermore, the authors obtain the Fourier-Legendre series representations for the transmutation kernels and then use them to expand the solutions of the impedance Sturm-Liouville equation into Neumann series of Bessel functions.