Resolvent growth and Birkhoff-regularity (Q852748)

Given the boundary value problem \[ l(y)=D^ny+\sum_{k=0}^{n-2} p_k(x)D^ky=\lambda y, \;0\leq x\leq1,\;p_k\in L(0,1), \] subject to two-point boundary conditions, it is well known that the associated operator \(L\) in \(L^2(0,1)\) has an unconditional basis if \(L\) is strongly Birkhoff regular. The converse has been a long-standing open question. In this paper, the author proves the converse in a slightly weakened sense: If \(L\) has an unconditional basis, then \(L\) is regular. Since for odd \(n\) all regular problems are strongly regular, whereas for even \(n\) generic regular problems are strongly regular, this result can be seen as the solution of the above-mentioned open solution. Known results on resolvent growth and almost orthogonality of eigenfunctions feature in the proof of this result. It is also shown that on a set \(\{\tau _m\}_{m=1}^\infty\) of minimal resolvent growth, the characteristic matrix converges to the corresponding Birkhoff matrix, which then is invertible. Finally, in the longest part of the proof, the author establishes that the spectrum of \(L\) is sparse and that this implies the existence of sets of minimal resolvent growth.