20.—Deficiency Indices of Polynomials in Symmetric Differential Expressions, II

Abstract

SynopsisGiven a symmetric (formally self-adjoint) ordinary linear differential expression L which is regular on the interval [0, ∞) and has C∞ coefficients, we investigate the relationship between the deficiency indices of L and those of p(L), where p(x) is any real polynomial of degree k > 1. Previously we established the following inequalities: (a) For k even, say k = 2r, N+(p(L)), N−(p(L)) ≧ r[N+(L)+N−(L)] and (b) for k odd, say k = 2r+1where N+(M), N−(M) denote the deficiency indices of the symmetric expression M (or of the minimal operator associated with M in the Hilbert space L2(0, ∞)) corresponding to the upper and lower half-planes, respectively. Here we give a necessary and sufficient condition for equality to hold in the above inequalities.