Journal Article

·2025 OPEN ACCESS

Spectral analysis of a higher-order self-adjoint differential operator with unbounded operator coefficients

Erdal Gül YTU , Mehmet Albayrak YTU

Boletim da Sociedade Paranaense de Matemática

Abstract

In contrast to the setting considered by Adıgüzelov and Sezer [4], where the differential operator involves classical scalar derivatives followed by multiplication with a self-adjoint unbounded operator, this study investigates a structurally distinct operator–differential model. The dual appearance of the unbounded operator both inside the highest–order derivatives and as an independent power term has not been systematically investigated in the literature. This structural feature induces a fundamentally different functional–analytic framework, leading to novel spectral properties and domain regularity requirements. Specifically, we examine expressions of the form \[ L_{o} (y(x)) := (-1)^{m} \big(A y(x)\big)^{(2m)} + A^{m}(y(x)), \] where the operator $A$ appears both inside the highest-order derivatives and as a power term. This formulation modifies the spectral characteristics and imposes distinct regularity conditions on the domain. Although the analytical techniques employed are analogous to those in [4], the operator structure considered here falls into a different class, requiring boundary conditions directly on $A y(x)$. The paper establishes the fundamental spectral framework for this setting, including explicit eigenvalue–eigenfunction formulas, symmetry, self-adjointness, and lower semi-boundedness of the associated operator.

Keywords

Operator (biology) Differential operator Scalar (mathematics) Boundary value problem Multiplication operator Spectral analysis Semi-elliptic operator Domain (mathematical analysis) Unbounded operator Spectral theorem Mathematics Mathematical analysis

Subject Areas

Spectral Theory in Mathematical Physics ·Mathematical Physics ·Physical Sciences
Nonlinear Differential Equations Analysis ·Applied Mathematics ·Physical Sciences
Advanced Mathematical Modeling in Engineering ·Computational Theory and Mathematics ·Physical Sciences