 Inverse-square weighted Dirichlet spectrum

For $y^{\prime \prime }+\lambda x^{-2}y=0$ on $0<a<x<b$ with zero endpoint values, write $t=\log (x/a)$ and $y=\sqrt{x}w(t)$. The Euler-Cauchy equation becomes $w^{\prime \prime }+(\lambda -1/4)w=0$. Thus $y_n=\sqrt{x}\sin [n\pi \log (x/a)/\log (b/a)]$ and the exact spectrum is displayed above. Leading WKB quantization omits the constant $1/4$, while producing the same leading eigenfunction shape after quantization.