Spectral asymptotics of the Sturm-Liouville operator on the half-line with potential tending to \(-\infty\). I (Q1000123)

It is a classical result that the Sturm-Liouville differential expression \(l(y):=-y'' +q y\) on \([0, \infty)\) equipped with selfadjoint boundary conditions induces a generalized Fourier transformation by \(\hat{f}(\lambda) := \int_0^\infty f(x) \varphi(x,\lambda) \; dx\), where \(\varphi(\cdot,\lambda)\) denotes the solution of \(l(y)=\lambda y\) satisfying the boundary conditions at \(0\). Then \(f \longrightarrow \hat{f}\) defines an isometric mapping from \(L^2[0,\infty)\) into a Hilbert space \(L^2_\rho (-\infty,\infty)\), where \(\rho\) is a nondecreasing function. If the spectrum of the associated operator and hence the support of the so-called spectral measure induced by \(\rho\) are bounded from below, then the asymptotic behavior of \(\rho\) at \(+\infty\) is well studied. However, the function \(\rho\) needs not to be constant near \(-\infty\) if \(q(x) \longrightarrow -\infty\) as \(x \longrightarrow \infty\). Then also the asymptotic behavior of \(\rho\) and of the density \(\rho'\) at \(-\infty\) are of interest. In previous papers by the same authors such asymptotic estimates for \(\rho'\) were given for the two particular cases \(q(x)=-bx\) and \(q(x)=-bx^2\) with \(b>0\). In the present paper, this result is generalized to a wider class of potentials satisfying certain conditions at \(\infty\) and \(0\). At least this class contains the potentials \(q(x)=-bx^p\) with \(0 < p \leq 2, \; b > 0\). This paper seems to be a refinement of results already published in [\textit{A.S. Pechentsov, A.Yu. Popov}, ''Asymptotic Behavior of the Spectral Measure Density of a Singular Sturm-Liouville Operator as \(\lambda \longrightarrow -\infty\).'' Dokl. Math. 75, No. 3, 374-376 (2007); translation from Dokl. Akad. Nauk, Ross. Akad. Nauk 414, No. 2, 172--174(2007; Zbl 1166.34307)] where the proof is only roughly indicated. Now, it is shown how the asymptotic behaviour of \(\rho'\) at \(-\infty\) follows from asyptotic estimates for the solution \(\varphi(x,\lambda)\) and for \(\frac{\partial \varphi}{\partial x}(x,\lambda)\) as \(\lambda \longrightarrow -\infty\) and \(x \longrightarrow \infty\).