Jacobi positivity criterion ($q>0⟺\text{no conjugate point in }(a,b]$)

Assume the Strengthened Legendre condition $P>0$ and let $q(\phi )={\int }_a^b(P{\phi }^{\prime 2}+Q{\phi }^2)$. Then $q$ is strictly positive on all nonzero fixed-endpoint Lipschitz variations exactly when the normalized Jacobi equation solution with $w(a)=0$, $P(a)w^{\prime }(a)=1$ has no zero in $(a,b]$. A zero at $c$ gives a nonzero variation equal to $w$ up to $c$ and zero thereafter, with $q=0$. Conversely, if no zero occurs, the Jacobi identity for the second variation writes $q$ as a nonnegative square. Equality forces $\phi =Cw$, and the endpoint at $b$ forces $C=0$.

For continuous $P\ge 0,Q$, a scalar second variation $q=\int (P{\phi }^{\prime 2}+Q{\phi }^2)$ is strictly positive on nonzero fixed-endpoint Lipschitz variations if and only if every regularized form $q_{\eta }$ for $\eta >0$ has no conjugate point in $(a,b]$, and the original weak Jacobi boundary problem has no nonzero Lipschitz solution. The Jacobi positivity criterion applies to each regularized coefficient $P+\eta >0$. Letting $\eta$ decrease to zero gives $q\ge 0$. For a nonnegative quadratic form, $q(\phi )=0$ forces its mixed bilinear form with every test function to vanish, by considering $q(\phi +t\psi )$ for both signs of $t$. This is the weak Jacobi equation, so the kernel condition gives strict positivity. Necessity follows by the same argument in reverse. It distinguishes strict positivity from a uniform coercive estimate when the derivative coefficient degenerates.