The purpose of this thesis is to ascertain whether linear differential operators with vanishing coefficients make suitable operators for Cauchy problems. Well-posedness for linear Cauchy problems - characterized by existence, uniqueness, and continuous dependence on the initial data - depends on a ray being in the spectrum of the operator and an estimate for the resolvent operator along this ray. This was originally shown by Hille and Yosida for operators when every positive real number is in the resolvent set, and later generalized by Feller, Miyadera, and Phillips. We restrict our attention to the setting where the differential operator acts on functions that depend on a spatial variable that takes values from a bounded subset of the real line. We establish ill-posedness of the Cauchy problem by analyzing the spectral properties of the differential operator and prove the spectrum is the entire complex plane for a wide variety of differential operators with vanishing coefficients. If the differential operator is the product of a polynomial in the derivative with a scaler function that has roots of finite multiplicity, we develop simple criteria for establishing ill-posedness of the Cauchy problem. We establish point spectral results when the function is real-valued with only simple roots, in particular we show the point spectrum is the entire complex plane. Much less is known when the coefficients of the differential operator depend on time. For these non-autonomous Cauchy problems (NCPs) only sufficient conditions for well-posedness are known, with necessary conditions still lacking. In this thesis we make strides with establishing necessary spectral conditions for well-posed NCPs in the case where the family of operators is continuous.

These notes will be useful and of interest to mathematicians and physicists active in research as well as for students with some knowledge of the abstract theory of operators in Hilbert spaces. They give a complete spectral theory for ordinary differential expressions of arbitrary order n operating on -valued functions existence and construction of self-adjoint realizations via boundary conditions, determination and study of general properties of the resolvent, spectral representation and spectral resolution. Special attention is paid to the question of separated boundary conditions, spectral multiplicity and absolutely continuous spectrum. For the case nm=2 (Sturm-Liouville operators and Dirac systems) the classical theory of Weyl-Titchmarch is included. Oscillation theory for Sturm-Liouville operators and Dirac systems is developed and applied to the study of the essential and absolutely continuous spectrum. The results are illustrated by the explicit solution of a number of particular problems including the spectral theory one partical Schrödinger and Dirac operators with spherically symmetric potentials. The methods of proof are functionally analytic wherever possible.

This is the first monograph devoted to the Sturm oscillatory theory for infinite systems of differential equations and its relations with the spectral theory. It aims to study a theory of self-adjoint problems for such systems, based on an elegant method of binary relations. Another topic investigated in the book is the behavior of discrete eigenvalues which appear in spectral gaps of the Hill operator and almost periodic SchrAdinger operators due to local perturbations of the potential (e.g., modeling impurities in crystals). The book is based on results that have not been presented in other monographs. The only prerequisites needed to read it are basics of ordinary differential equations and operator theory. It should be accessible to graduate students, though its main topics are of interest to research mathematicians working in functional analysis, differential equations and mathematical physics, as well as to physicists interested in spectral theory of differential operators."

The main aim of this book is to introduce the reader to the concept of comparison algebra, defined as a type of C*-algebra of singular integral operators. The first part of the book develops the necessary elements of the spectral theory of differential operators as well as the basic properties of elliptic second order differential operators. The author then introduces comparison algebras and describes their theory in L2-spaces and L2-Soboler spaces, and in particular their importance in solving functional analytic problems involving differential operators. The book is based on lectures given in Sweden and the USA.

This book is an updated version of the classic 1987 monograph "Spectral Theory and Differential Operators".The original book was a cutting edge account of the theory of bounded and closed linear operators in Banach and Hilbert spaces relevant to spectral problems involving differential equations. It is accessible to a graduate student as well as meeting the needs of seasoned researchers in mathematics and mathematical physics. This revised edition corrects various errors, and adds extensive notes to the end of each chapter which describe the considerable progress that has been made on the topic in the last 30 years.

This book could be used either for self-study or as a course text, and aims to lead the reader to the more advanced literature on partial differential operators.

It is well known that a wealth of problems of different nature, applied as well as purely theoretic, can be reduced to the study of elliptic equations and their eigen-values. During the years many books and articles have been published on this topic, considering spectral properties of elliptic differential operators from different points of view. This is one more book on these properties. This book is devoted to the study of some classical problems of the spectral theory of elliptic differential equations. The reader will find hardly any intersections with the books of Shubin [Sh] or Rempel-Schulze [ReSch] or with the works cited there. This book also has no general information in common with the books by Egorov and Shubin [EgShu], which also deal with spectral properties of elliptic operators. There is nothing here on oblique derivative problems; the reader will meet no pseudodifferential operators. The main subject of the book is the estimates of eigenvalues, especially of the first one, and of eigenfunctions of elliptic operators. The considered problems have in common the approach consisting of the application of the variational principle and some a priori estimates, usually in Sobolev spaces. In many cases, impor tant for physics and mechanics, as well as for geometry and analysis, this rather elementary approach allows one to obtain sharp results.