No abstract

No abstract

1. Introduction. Let P(x) be an m × m matrix-valued function that is continuous, real, symmetric, and positive definite for all x in an interval J , which will be further specified. Let w(x) be a positive and continuous weight function and define the formally self adjoint operator l bywhere y(x) is assumed to be an m-dimensional vector-valued function. The operator l generates a minimal closed symmetric operator L0 in the Hilbert space ℒm2(J; w) of all complex, m-dimensional vector-valued functions y on J satisfyingwith inner productwhere . All selfadjoint extensions of L0 have the same essential spectrum ([5] or [19]). As a consequence, the discreteness of the spectrum S(L) of one selfadjoint extension L will imply that the spectrum of every selfadjoint extension is entirely discrete.

Let l be the differential operator of order 2n defined bywhere the coefficients are real continuous functions and pn > 0. The formally self-adjoint operator l determines a minimal closed symmetric linear operator L0 in the Hilbert space L2 (0, ∞) with domain dense in L2 (0, ∞) ((4), § 17). The operator L0 has a self-adjoint extension L which is not unique, but all such L have the same continuous spectrum ((4), § 19·4). We are concerned here with conditions on the pi which will imply that the spectrum of such an L is bounded below and discrete.

In this paper, we prove that the distance function of an open connected set in R n+1 with a C 2 boundary is superharmonic in the distribution sense if and only if the boundary is weakly mean convex. We then prove that Hardy inequalities with a sharp constant hold on weakly mean convex C 2 domains. Moreover, we show that the weakly mean convexity condition cannot be weakened. We also prove various improved Hardy inequalities on mean convex domains along the line of Brezis-Marcus [7].1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. 35R45, 35J20.