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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 February 2012
This paper considers the properties of the spectrum of a differential operator derived from differential expressions of the fourth order. With certain conditions on the coefficients of the differential expression the spectrum of the operator is discrete and an estimate is obtained of the number of eigenvalues lying in a given bounded interval of the real line. The results are compared with those obtained by alternative methods. Additional restrictions on the coefficients give special cases previously considered by other authors.