Spectral properties of a \(q\)-Sturm--Liouville operator (Q842440)

In this paper, the spectral properties of a class of Sturm--Liouville type operators on the real line are studied, where the derivatives are replaced by a \(q\)-difference operator which has been introduced in the context of orthogonal polynomials. Using the relation of this operator to a direct integral of doubly-infinite Jacobi matrices, the authors construct examples for isolated pure point, dense pure point, purely absolutely continuous and purely singular continuous spectrum. It is shown that among uniformly continuous coefficients, purely singular continuous spectrum is generic, and among analytic coefficients, purely absolutely continuous spectrum is generic.