Selfadjoint extensions of regular canonical systems with Stieltjes boundary conditions (Q750699)

Selfadjoint extensions of a given symmetric linear relation \(S_ 0\) in a Hilbert space \({\mathcal H}\) can be characterized as restrictions of the adjoint \(S^*_ 0\) of \(S_ 0\). When \(S_ 0\) is the minimal relation associated with a formally symmetric ordinary differential expression in an \(L^ 2\)-function space, then the restrictions involve linear combinations of the boundary values of the elements in the domain \({\mathcal D}(S^*_ 0)\) of \(S^*_ 0\). For ordinary differential expressions which are regular on some compact interval the boundary values of the elements in \({\mathcal D}(S^*_ 0)\) are simply their values in the endpoints a and b. The maximal number of linearly independent boundary operators for \(S^*_ 0\) (the point evaluations at a and b) in terms of which the boundary conditions are expressed, is equal to the dimension of the gap \(S^*_ 0/S_ 0\) between \(S^*_ 0\) and \(S_ 0.\) In the present paper one considers more general boundary conditions such as multipoint and interface conditions or even ones which involve Stieltjes integrals. In order to admit these in the general framework of operators or relations in the given space \({\mathcal H}\), one widens the gap between \(S^*_ 0\) and \(S_ 0\) by introducing a finite dimensional linear manifold Z of \({\mathcal H}^ 2\) and replacing \(S_ 0\) by its restriction \(S=S_ 0\cap Z^*\). Without loss of generality one may assume that Z has been chosen such that \(S^*_ 0\cap Z=\{\{0,0\}\}\), then \(S\subset S_ 0\subset S^*_ 0\subset S^*\) and dim \(S^*/S=\dim S^*_ 0/S_ 0+2 \dim Z\). The boundary operators for \(S^*\) then not only include the point evaluations at a and b but also, when Z is chosen appropriately, operators involving prescribed Stieltjes integrals. In the paper a description of all selfadjoint extensions of S is given, by means of analytic tools in order to characterize the extensions beyond the given Hilbert space.