Dirichlet operators with convex potentials on the half-line (Q626066)

Let \(\lambda_{n}(t)\) be the \(n\)-th eigenvalue of the Dirichlet operator \(H_{t}=-d^{2}/dx^{2}+q(x)\) on \(L^{2}([t,\infty))\) and \(\Gamma(t)=\lambda_{2}(t)-\lambda_{1}(t), \forall t\in \mathbb{R}\), be the eigenvalue gap of \(H_{t}\). The authors prove that if \(q\) is a convex differentiable function so that \(q(x) \rightarrow \infty\) as \(x \rightarrow \infty\), then \(\Gamma\) is an increasing function. This function is strictly increasing if the potential \(q\) is also not linear at \(\infty\). An asymptotic formula for \(\Gamma(t)\) is obtained for quadratic potentials \(q\).