Spectral properties of a fourth order differential equation (Q853504)

The authors consider the boundary value problem \[ y^4 (\lambda,x) - (g y')' (\lambda,x) = \lambda^2 y (\lambda,x),\tag{1} \] \[ y (\lambda,0) = 0, \quad y'' (\lambda,a) + i \alpha \lambda y' (\lambda,a) = 0,\tag{2} \] with \(g \in C^{1} [0,a]\) and \(\alpha > 0.\) It is shown that the eigenvalues of problem (1)--(2) lie in the closed upper half-plane or on the negative imaginary axis. A formula for the asymptotics for the eigenvalues is given. It is proved that for \(g \in C^{1} [0,a]\), there is a positive integer \(k_{0}\) such that the eigenvalues \(\lambda_{k}, \;k \in \mathbb{Z}, \) of problem (1)--(2), counted with their multiplicity, can be enumerated in such a way that the eigenvalues \(\lambda_{k}\) are pure imaginary for \(| k | < k_{0},\) \(\lambda_{-k} = \overline{-\lambda}_{k}\) for \(k \geq k_{0}\), and \(\lambda_{k} = \mu_{k}^{2}\), where \[ \mu_{k} = k \frac{\pi}{a} + \frac{\pi}{4a} + \frac{1}{k} \;\frac{1}{\pi} \;\biggl(\frac{1}{4} \int_{0}^{a} g (t) dt + \frac{i}{\alpha}\biggl) + O (k^{-2}) \] as \(k \longrightarrow \infty.\) Moreover, some results are obtained concerning the distribution of the eigenvalues of problem (1)--(2).