 Solution

Assume the regular real Sturm-Liouville problem, with $p,w>0$, ordered eigenvalues ${\lambda }_0<{\lambda }_1<\cdots$, and real orthonormal eigenfunctions in the weighted inner productThe Rayleigh quotient for an admissible trial function isThe second expression follows by integration by parts. It is the quantity used in the Rayleigh-Ritz method.

For $\tilde{y}=y_0+{\sum }_{n\ge 1}{a}_n{y}_n$, orthonormality eliminates every cross-term in the denominator:Applying $\mathcal{L}$ to the eigenfunction expansion and using the same orthogonality in the numerator givesHence, whenever the trial function has finite energy,Put $S=\sum a_n^2$ and $\Delta =\sum a_n^2({\lambda }_n-{\lambda }_0)$. The exact error and its expansion areIn particular, under a common small scaling $a_n=\epsilon b_n$ with fixed finite sums $\sum b_n^2$ and $\sum b_n^2({\lambda }_n-{\lambda }_0)$,The fourth-order remainder includes mixed products $a_n^2{a}_j^2$, not just individual fourth powers.

Error comparison and sign. Since $\Vert y_0{\Vert }_w=1$, the relative weighted norm error of the supplied trial function isFor ${\lambda }_0\ne 0$, the relative eigenvalue error is $\Delta /(|{\lambda }_0|(1+S))=O({\epsilon }^2)$. Thus the Rayleigh quotient has a second-order error for a first-order error in the trial eigenfunction, provided the energy-weighted coefficient sum is controlled. Small weighted norm error alone does not control arbitrarily high-frequency contamination, because ${\lambda }_n$ can grow without bound. If ${\lambda }_0=0$, an absolute error must replace the undefined relative one.

Finally every summand of $\Delta$ is nonnegative. Thuswith strict inequality whenever some $a_n\ne 0$. This is the upper-bound property of the Rayleigh-Ritz variational principle for the lowest eigenvalue.