A general oscillation theorem for self-adjoint differential systems with applications to Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problems and quadratic functionals (Q916850)

For given 2n\(\times 2n\) matrices \(S_{13}\), \(S_{24}\) with rank \((S_{13},S_{24})=2n\), \(S_{13}\bar S^ T_{24}=S_{24}\bar S^ T_{13}\) we consider the eigenvalue problem: \(u'=A(x)u+B(x)\nu,\nu '=C_ 1(x;\lambda)u-\bar A^ T(x)\nu\) with \[ S_{13}\left( \begin{matrix} - u(a)\\ u(b)\end{matrix} \right)+S_{24}\left( \begin{matrix} \nu (a)\\ \nu (b)\end{matrix} \right)=0,\quad a<b; \] where we assume that the \(n\times n\) matrices A, B, \(C_ 1\) satisfy: A, B, \(C_ 1\), \(\partial C_ 1/\partial \lambda\) are continuous on \({\mathbb{R}}\) resp. \({\mathbb{R}}^ 2\); B, \(C_ 1\) are Hermitian; B, \(-\partial C_ 1/\partial \lambda\) are non- negative definite; and we assume the crucial normality-condition: for any solution u, \(\nu\) (\(\lambda\in {\mathbb{R}}\) arbitrary) \((\partial C_ 1/\partial \lambda)u\equiv 0\) on some interval always implies \(u\equiv \nu \equiv 0\). Then, the main result of the paper is the following oscillation result: For any conjoined basis \(U_ 1(x;\lambda)\), \(V_ 1(x;\lambda)\) of the differential system with fixed (with respect to \(\lambda\)) initial values \(U_ 1(a)\), \(V_ 1(a)\), we have \(n_ 1(\lambda)+n_ 2(\lambda)=n_ 3(\lambda)+n_ 1+n_ 2\) for \(\lambda\in {\mathbb{R}}\) with regular \(U_ 1(b;\lambda)\); where \(n_ i=\lim_{\lambda \to -\infty}n_ i(\lambda)\), \(i=1,2\); \(n_ 1(\lambda)\) denotes number of focal points of \(U_ 1\) in [a,b); \(n_ 3(\lambda)\) denotes the number of eigenvalues which are \(\leq \lambda\); and \(n_ 2(\lambda)\) denotes the number of negative eigenvalues of a certain Hermitian 3n\(\times 3n\) matrix M(\(\lambda\)). Moreover, it is shown how classical results (e.g. Rayleigh's principle, existence theorem) can be derived from this oscillation theorem via a generalized Picone identity (which yields also the matrix M(\(\lambda\)) above).