Nonreal eigenvalues of singular indefinite Sturm-Liouville problems (Q6635549)

A singular indefinite Sturm-Liouville problem \(-(py')' + q y = \lambda w y\) with \(p, |w| > 0\) a.e. is considered on a finite interval \((a, b)\) equipped with self-adjoint boundary conditions (in an indefinite sense). In case of sign changes of \(w\) there may appear nonreal eigenvalues. So far for different indefinite settings of this kind estimates on such nonreal eigenvalues are already known. In the present paper a priori bounds are presented for the case of limit-circle type nonoscillation endpoints. To this end in addition to \(\frac{1}{p}, w, q \in L^1_{\mathrm{loc}}(a, b)\) and \(\int_a^b (\frac{1}{|p|} + |w| + |q|) = \infty\) some further conditions on the coefficients are formulated and boundary conditions of the form \([y, v_a](a) = 0\), \([y, v_b](b) = 0\) are imposed where \([f, g] := f(pg') - g(pf')\) and \(v_a\), \(v_b\) are nonprincipal solutions of \(-(py')' + q y = 0\) at \(a\) and \(b\), respectively. As the main result fixed upper bounds for \(|\)Im \(\lambda|\) and for \(|\lambda|\) are presented for all nonreal eigenvalues \(\lambda\) in terms of the coefficients. Furthermore, these estimates are improved for the case of a single turning point (i.e. sign change) of \(w\). An explicit example with \(p(x) := 1 - x^2\) and \(w(x) := x\) on \((-1, 1)\) is discussed.