In the classical theory of self-adjoint boundary value problems for linear ordinary differential operators there is a fundamental, but rather mysterious, interplay between the symmetric (conjugate) bilinear scalar product of the basic Hilbert space and the skew-symmetric boundary form of the associated differential expression. This book presents a new conceptual framework, leading to an effective structured method, for analyzing and classifying all such self-adjoint boundary conditions. The program is carried out by introducing innovative new mathematical structures which relate the Hilbert space to a complex symplectic space. This work offers the first systematic detailed treatment in the literature of these two topics: complex symplectic spaces—their geometry and linear algebra—and quasi-differential operators.

Features:

• Authoritative and systematic exposition of the classical theory for self-adjoint linear ordinary differential operators (including a review of all relevant topics in texts of Naimark, and Dunford and Schwartz).
• Introduction and development of new methods of complex symplectic linear algebra and geometry and of quasi-differential operators, offering the only extensive treatment of these topics in book form.
• New conceptual and structured methods for self-adjoint boundary value problems.
• Extensive and exhaustive tabulations of all existing kinds of self-adjoint boundary conditions for regular and for singular ordinary quasi-differential operators of all orders up through six.