Zeta-determinants of Sturm-Liouville operators with quadratic potentials at infinity (Q730126)

The authors consider the operator \[ H=-\frac{d}{dx}\Bigl(x^{2}\frac{d}{dx}\cdot\Bigr)+x^{2}\mu^{2}-\frac{1}{4}+V(x) \] on functions from the interval \([a,\infty)\), \(a>0\) to \(\mathbb{C}\), satisfying a certain boundary condition \(R_{a}\). The main result (Theorem 1.2) is the following. Fix any \(\nu\geq0\) and suppose \(V\in\{x^{\gamma}g\;|\;g\in L^{1}[a,\infty)\}\) for a fixed \(\gamma<2\). Then \(H+\nu^{2}\) is self-adjoint with a discrete spectrum. Its \(\zeta\)-function, defined by \[ \zeta_{H+\nu^{2}}(s):=\sum_{\lambda\in\mathrm{spec}(H+\nu^{2})}\lambda^{-s} \] admits a meromorphic continuation into a half plane \{\(z\in\mathbb{C}\;|\;{\mathrm{Re}(z)>r}\}\) for some \(r<0\). Therefore, its zeta-regularized determinant \(\log\det\zeta_{H+\nu^{2}}:=-\zeta_{H+\nu^{2}}'(0)\) is well-defined. Furthermore, the authors have an explicit formula for this determinant in terms of the Wronkian of a fundamental solution to the differential equation \((H+\nu^{2})(f)=0\) with boundary condition \(R_{a}\). This work is related to earlier works by Burghelea, Friedlander and Kappeler, and the authors; and is motivated by recent studies on analytic torsions on hyperbolic manifolds.