THE ROTATION NUMBER APPROACH TO EIGENVALUES OF THE ONE-DIMENSIONAL p-LAPLACIAN WITH PERIODIC POTENTIALS

Abstract

The paper studies the periodic and anti-periodic eigenvalues of the one-dimensional p-Laplacian with a periodic potential. After a rotation number function ρ(λ) has been introduced, it is proved that for any non-negative integer n, the endpoints of the interval ρ−1(n/2) in ℝ yield the corresponding periodic or anti-periodic eigenvalues. However, as in the Dirichlet problem of the higher dimensional p-Laplacian, it remains open if these eigenvalues represent all periodic and anti-periodic eigenvalues. The result obtained is a partial generalization of the spectrum theory of the one-dimensional Schrödinger operators with periodic potentials.