Transformation theory of symmetric differential expressions (Q930310)

The problem studied is that of determining Kummer-Liouville transformations which retain the form of symmetric differential expressions \(\tau[y](x)\) of even or odd order with real or complex coefficients. The expression is written in the form of a Hamiltonian system in terms of quasi-derivatives of \(y.\) The Kummer-Liouville transformation maps the variables \((x,y)\) to variables \((t,z)\) and is defined by \[ y(x) = \mu(x) z(t),\;\;\;t=f(x) \] for sufficiently smooth positive functions \(\mu\) and \(f.\) An existence proof is given which yields an algorithm for computing the coefficients of the transformed equation. By using a modified Kummer-Liouville transformation, explicit expressions for the coefficients of the transformed equation are obtained up to terms which do not alter the asymptotics of the solutions - so called Levinson terms.