Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-16T08:26:02.121Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Characterisation of the factors of quasi-differential expressions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 November 2011

D. Race
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematical and Computing Sciences, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH, U.K.
A. Zettl
Affiliation:
Department of Mathematical Sciences, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, Illinois 60115, U.S.A.

Synopsis

A necessary and sufficient condition for a general, scalar, quasi-differential expression of order n to be factorisable into a product of expressions of order nk and k, for any 0 < k < n, is given. The factors are characterised completely in terms of elements of the null space of the expression and its adjoint. The results obtained extend existing results due to both Polya and Zettl from the case of classical linear differential expressions to quasi-differential expressions.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Browne, P. J. and Nillsen, R.. The two-sided factorization of ordinary differential operators. Can. J. Math. 32 (1980), 10451057.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Everitt, W. N., Muldowney, J. S. and Thandi, N.. Factorisation of quasi-differential operators (preprint).Google Scholar
3. Everitt, W. N. and Race, D.. Some remarks on linear ordinary quasi-differential expressions. Proc. London Math. Soc. 54 (1987), 300320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4. Frentzen, H.. Equivalence, adjoints and symmetry of quasi-differential expressions with matrix-valued coefficients and polynomials in them. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 92 (1982), 123146.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5. Frentzen, H., Race, D. and Zettl, A.. On the commutativity of certain quasi-differential expressions II (submitted).Google Scholar
6. Hill, J. M. and Nillsen, R. V.. Mutually conjugate solutions of formally self-adjoint differential equations. Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 83 (1979), 93101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7. Krein, M. G.. Sur les operateurs differentiels autoadjoints et leurs fonctions de Green symmetriques. Mat. Sb. 2 (44) no. 6 (1937), 10231072.Google Scholar
8. Polya, G.. On the mean-value theorem corresponding to a given linear homogeneous differential equation. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 24 (1922), 312324.Google Scholar
9. Race, D.. Some remarks on quasi-differential expressions with matrix-valued coefficients. Quaest Math. 10 (1987), 271299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10. Reid, W. T.. Ordinary Differential Equations (New York: Wiley, 1971).Google Scholar
11. Zettl, A.. Factorization of differential operators. Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 27 (1971), 425426.Google Scholar
12. Zettl, A.. General theory of the factorization of ordinary linear differential operators. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 197 (1974), 341353.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
13. Zettl, A.. Formally self-adjoint quasi-differential operators. Rocky Mountain J. Math. 5 (1975), 453474.CrossRefGoogle Scholar