Derivation-invariant subspaces of \(C^{\infty}\) (Q934562)

The aim of this paper is to investigate the structure of the closed subspaces \(L\) of the Fréchet spaces \(C^{\infty}(]a,b[)\), where \(-\infty\leq a<b\leq +\infty\), which are invariant by the differentiation operator \(D\). The starting point of this paper is the following classical result: if \(L\) is of finite dimension \(n\), then \(L\) is \(D\)-invariant if and only if \(L\) is the space of solutions of an equation of the form \(P(D)f=0\), where \(P\) is a polynomial of degree \(n\) with constant coefficients, or, equivalently, if and only if \(L\) is spanned by functions \(x^j\exp(\lambda x)\), where \(0\leq j\leq m_{\lambda}-1\) for \(\lambda\in\mathbb{C}\) and \(\sum_{\lambda} m_{\lambda}=n\). It is first shown that, for each such subspace \(L\), the spectrum \(\sigma_L\) of \(D\) acting on \(L\) is either \(\mathbb{C}\) or the set \(\{\lambda \in\mathbb{C}:e_{\lambda}\in L\}\), where \(e_{\lambda}(x)=\exp(\lambda x)\) for \(x\in\mathbb{R}\). If \(\sigma_L\) is empty, then there exists a relatively closed interval \(I\subseteq\;]a,b[\) such that \(L=\{f\in C^{\infty}(]a,b[):f=0\text{ on } I\}\). If \(I\) consists of a single point \(x_0\in\;]a,b[\), then \(L=\{f\in C^{\infty}(]a,b[) : f^{(n)}=0\text{ on } I \text{ for every } n\geq 0\}\).