Lagrange identity for a Sturm-Liouville operator ($uL(v)-vL(u)=[p(u{v}^{\prime }-v{u}^{\prime }){]}^{\prime }$)

For $L(v)=(p{v}^{\prime }{)}^{\prime }+av$, direct differentiation gives $uL(v)-vL(u)=[p(u{v}^{\prime }-v{u}^{\prime }){]}^{\prime }$. The potential terms cancel. Integrating with common homogeneous Dirichlet boundary conditions eliminates the endpoint term. If $L(u)=0$ and $L(v)=f$, this gives $\int uf=0$, a necessary solvability condition for the inhomogeneous equation.