Singular solitons and indefinite metrics (Q656237)

It is well known that the differential equation \(L \Psi := - \Psi'' + u(x) \Psi = \lambda \Psi\) with \(\lambda \in {\mathbb C}\) leads to eigenfunction expansion theorems if \(u\) is an \(L^1\)-function. The situation is more involved if the real potential \(u\) has singularities. The present paper presents a function theoretic approach to potentials \(u\) which are \(C^\infty\)-smooth outside isolated singularities \(x_j\) and meromorphic in a neighbourhood of \(x_j\). Two different types of potentials are considered: a) singular finite-gap potentials when \(u\) is periodic (i.e. \(u(x + T) = u(x)\)) and b) singular solitons when \(u(x) \rightarrow 0\) as \(|x| \rightarrow \infty\). The inner product \(\langle \Psi_1, \Psi_2 \rangle = \int_0^T \Psi_1(x) \overline{\Psi_2}(\overline{x}) \, dx\) in case a) and \(\langle \Psi_1, \Psi_2 \rangle = \int_{-\infty}^{\infty} \Psi_1(x) \overline{\Psi_2}(\overline{x}) \, dx\) in case b) is considered on the space \({\mathcal F}_{(X)}\) of \(C^\infty\)-smooth functions outside singularities in \(x_j\). It is observed that it has finitely many negative squares and its number is calculated. However, the associated Pontrjagin space topology seems to be not used in the following. Two expansion theorems for \({\mathcal F}_{(X)}\) are obtained with a function representation in terms of a series in case a) and in terms of an integral plus finitely many terms in case b). It is mentioned that a certain representation of a rational solution of the Korteweg-de Vries equation \(u_t = 6u u_x - u_{xxx}\) plays an important role in the proofs of the theorems which are not presented in the paper.