On the commutativity of certain quasi-differential expressions II

Abstract

SynopsisWe consider the question: when do two ordinary, linear, quasi-differential expressions commute? For classical differential expressions, answers to this question are well known. The set of all expressions which commute with a given such expression form a commutative ring. For quasi-differential expressions less is known and such an algebraiastructure can no longer be exploited. Using the theory of very general quasi-differential expressions with matrix-valued coefficients, we prove some general results concerning commutativity of such expressions. We show how, when specialised to scalar expressions, these results include a proof of the conjecture that if a 2nth-order scalar, J-symmetric (or real symmetric) quasi-differential expression commutes with a second order expression having the same properties, then the former must be an nth-order polynomial in the latter. This result was conjectured in a paper by Race and Zettl, to which this paper is a sequel.