The spectral $$\zeta $$-function for quasi-regular Sturm–Liouville operators

Abstract In this work, we analyze the spectral $$\zeta $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ζ</mml:mi> </mml:math> -function associated with the self-adjoint extensions, $$T_{A,B}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>T</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>B</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> , of quasi-regular Sturm–Liouville operators that are bounded from below. By utilizing the Green’s function formalism, we find the characteristic function, which implicitly provides the eigenvalues associated with a given self-adjoint extension $$T_{A,B}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>T</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>B</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> . The characteristic function is then employed to construct a contour integral representation for the spectral $$\zeta $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ζ</mml:mi> </mml:math> -function of $$T_{A,B}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>T</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>B</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> . By assuming a general form for the asymptotic expansion of the characteristic function, we describe the analytic continuation of the $$\zeta $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ζ</mml:mi> </mml:math> -function to a larger region of the complex plane. We also present a method for computing the value of the spectral $$\zeta $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ζ</mml:mi> </mml:math> -function of $$T_{A,B}$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>T</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>A</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>B</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:math> at all positive integers. We provide two examples to illustrate the methods developed in the paper: the generalized Bessel and Legendre operators. We show that in the case of the generalized Bessel operator, the spectral $$\zeta $$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mi>ζ</mml:mi> </mml:math> -function develops a branch point at the origin, while in the case of the Legendre operator it presents, more remarkably, branch points at every nonpositive integer value of s .