English

Quantitative Projections in the Sturm Oscillation Theorem

Classical Analysis and ODEs 2018-04-19 v2 Functional Analysis Spectral Theory

Abstract

There is c>0c_{} > 0 such that for all fC[0,π]f \in C[0,\pi] with at most d1d-1 roots inside (0,π)(0,\pi) 1ndf,sin(nx)κκ2logκfL2\mboxwhereκ=cfL2fL2. \sum_{1 \leq n \leq d}{ \left| \left\langle f, \sin\left( n x\right) \right\rangle \right|} \geq \kappa^{-\kappa^2 \log{\kappa}}\|f\|_{L^2} \qquad \mbox{where} \quad \kappa = \frac{c_{} \| \nabla f\|_{L^2}}{\|f\|_{L^2}}. This quantifies the Sturm-Hurwitz Theorem and connects a purely topological condition (number of roots) to the Fourier spectrum. It is also one of few estimates on Fourier coefficients from below. The result holds more generally for eigenfunctions of regular Sturm-Liouville problems (p(x)y(x))+q(x)y(x)=λw(x)y(x)\mboxon (a,b). - (p(x) y'(x))' + q(x) y(x) = \lambda w(x) y(x) \qquad \mbox{on}~(a,b). Sturm-Liouville theory shows the existence of a sequence of solutions (ϕn)n=1(\phi_n)_{n=1}^{\infty} that form an orthogonal basis of L2(a,b)L^2(a,b) with respect to w(x)dxw(x)dx. Sturm himself proved that if f:(a,b)Rf:(a,b) \rightarrow \mathbb{R} is a finite linear combinations of ϕn\phi_n having d1d-1 roots inside (a,b)(a,b), then ff cannot be orthogonal to A=\mboxspan{ϕ1,,ϕd}A = \mbox{span}\left\{\phi_1, \dots, \phi_{d}\right\}. We prove a lower bound on the size of the projection πAf\| \pi_A f\|_{}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1804.05779,
  title  = {Quantitative Projections in the Sturm Oscillation Theorem},
  author = {Stefan Steinerberger},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.05779},
  year   = {2018}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-23T01:25:10.112Z