Application of the Ritz method to non-standard eigenvalue problems

Abstract

There is an extensive literature on application of the Ritz method to eigenvalue problems of the type where L1, L2 are positive definite linear operators in a Hilbert space (see for example [1]). The classical theory concerns the case in which there exists a minimum (or maximum) eigenvalue, and subsequent eigenvalues can be located by a well-known mini-max principle [2; p. 405]. This paper considers the possibility of application of the Ritz method to eigenvalue problems of the type (1) where the linear operators L1L2 are not necessarily positive definite and a minimum (or maximum) eigenvalue may not exist. The special cases considered may be written with the eigenvalue occurring in a non-linear manner.