Nonpositive modes in a Dirichlet-Robin interval expansion

ID: nonpositive-modes-in-a-dirichlet-robin-interval-expansion

For , positive eigenvalues have eigenfunctions , where and . Their squared norms are . A zero eigenvalue occurs precisely at , with eigenfunction . A negative eigenvalue occurs precisely at : it is with eigenfunction , where . There is exactly one such , since decreases strictly from to . The integration by parts identity
and the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality show positivity for and nonnegativity at equality. The complete expansion of a square-integrable function therefore includes the extra term when , or when , in addition to . Omitting that extra mode makes the system incomplete. In particular, at is orthogonal to every positive sine mode and is an immediate counterexample to a sine-only expansion.

New to topics? Read the docs here!