On Titchmarsh–Weyl Functions and Eigenfunction Expansions of First-Order Symmetric Systems

Abstract

We study general (not necessarily Hamiltonian) first-order symmetric system J y′(t)−B(t)y(t) = Δ(t) f(t) on an interval \({\mathcal{I}=[a,b) }\) with the regular endpoint a. It is assumed that the deficiency indices n ±(T min) of the minimal relation T min associated with this system in \({L^2_\Delta(\mathcal{I})}\) satisfy \({n_-(T_{\rm min})\leq n_+(T_{\rm min})}\). We are interested in boundary conditions playing the role similar to that of separated self-adjoint boundary conditions for Hamiltonian systems. Instead we define λ-depending boundary conditions with Nevanlinna type spectral parameter τ = τ(λ) at the singular endpoint b. With this boundary value problem we associate the matrix m-function m(·) of the size \({N_\Sigma = {\rm dim} {\rm ker} (iJ+I)}\). Its role is similar to that of the Titchmarsh–Weyl coefficient for the Hamiltonian system. In turn, it allows one to define the Fourier transform \({V: L^2_\Delta(\mathcal{I}) \to L^2(\Sigma)}\) where Σ (·) is a spectral matrix function of m(·). If V is an isometry, then the (exit space) self-adjoint extension \({\tilde{T}}\) of T min induced by the boundary problem is unitarily equivalent to the multiplication operator in L 2(Σ). Hence the multiplicity of spectrum of \({\tilde{T}}\) does not exceed N Σ. We also parameterize a set of spectral functions Σ(·) by means of the set of boundary parameters τ. Similar parameterizations for various classes of boundary value problems have earlier been obtained by Kac and Krein, Fulton, Hinton and Shaw, and others.