Selfadjoint \(\Pi _{\kappa}\)-extensions of symmetric subspaces: An abstract approach to boundary problems with spectral parameter in the boundary conditions (Q801524)

Let H be a Hilbertspace and let S be a symmetric subspace in \(H^ 2=H\oplus H\). In the paper we characterize the class of all compressed resolvents (generalized resolvent of S) \(R(\ell)\equiv P(A-\ell)^{- 1}|_ H,\) \(\ell \in \rho (A)\), and the class of all Štraus manifolds (Štraus extensions of S, respectively) \(T(\ell)\equiv \{\{Pf,Pg\}| \{f,g\}\in A,g-\ell f\in H\},\ell \in {\mathbb{C}}\setminus {\mathbb{R}},\) where A runs through the class of all selfadjoint subspaces (selfadjoint extensions of S, respectively) in all possible \(\Pi_{\kappa}\)-spaces \(\tilde H\supset_{S}H\) with nonempty resolvent set \(\rho\) (A). Here we write \(\tilde H\supset_{S}H\) to indicate that \(\tilde H\) contains H such that the scalar product on \(\tilde H\) restricted to H coincides with the inner product on H, and we denote by P the orthogonal projection in \(\tilde H\) onto H. The characterization is given by means of classes of meromorphic, operator or subspace valued mappings, with which there is associated a kernel with a finite number of negative squares. These abstract results are used to associate with a large class of boundary value problems, which are generated by formally symmetric ordinary differential expressions and contain the spectral parameter in the boundary conditions a selfadjoint operator or subspace acting in a Hilbert or \(H_{\kappa}\) space, which is larger than the original given space H. In a forthcoming paper we show that the characterization of the Štraus extension T(\(\ell)\) of S,\(\ell \in {\mathbb{C}}\setminus {\mathbb{R}}\), is, in fact, one in terms of characteristic functions of certain unitary colligations and that the Štraus extensions T(\(\ell)\) for \(\ell \in {\mathbb{R}}\cup \{\infty \}\) are determined by the boundary values of these characteristic functions.