This paper studies the boundary-value problem arising from the behaviour of a fluid occupying the region 0 ≦ x ≧ 1 between two rotating discs, rotating about a common axis perpendicular to their planes, when the discs, are rotating in the same sense with speeds 0 ≦ Ω0<Ω1. The equations which describe the axially symmetric similarity solutions of this problem are

with the boundary conditions

where ε = v/2Ω1 and v is the kinematic viscosity.

The major result is: There is an ε0 such that for 0<ε≦ε0 there does not exist a solution 〈H(x,ε), G(x,ε)〉 with G′(x,ε)≧0.

The Weyl limit-point, limit-circle nature of the equation y″(x)–q(x)y(x) = 0(0≦ x< ∞) is analysed When q(x) has the form q(x) = xαp(xβ), where α and β are positive constants and p(t) is a continuous periodic function of t.

We investigate the spectral theory for a class of pseudodifferential operators which includes all constant coefficient differential operators, and also operators such as The operators considered are of the form Su(x) = Au(x)+q(x)u(x), where A is an operator which corresponds in the Fourier transform plane to a multiplication operator, and q(x) is a potential term. We prove an eigenfunction expansion theorem for S and derive some results concerning the spectrum of S.

Given differential expressions τ1; τ2, …, τn— not necessarily symmetric—which are regular on [0,∞), we investigate the relationship between the number of linearly independent L2(0,∞) solutions of the equations τjy = 0 and of the product equation (τ1τ2 … τn)y = 0. Our results extend those recently obtained in [15, 16, 17] for the special case τJ = τ for j = 1, …, n and τ is symmetric. In particular they include the classification results of Everitt and Giertz [4,5,6] for this special case when τ is a real second-order symmetric expression.

The existence of periodic solutions of non-linear Schrödinger equations with periodic potential is investigated. The main result obtained is an intermediate value type theorem for such non-linear differential operators.

Second-order expressions –d2/dx2+q whose squares are of limit-3 type are constructed. The construction is simpler than others in the literature. The function q can be chosen to be infinitely differentiable and decreasing and to satisfy q(x)≧ –x2(log x)2+ε (x→∞) for a given ε>0.

Using a non-linear transformation of the state space, the dynamic behaviour of an adaptive thirdorder relay system is analysed. The control strategy yields state paths close to the time-optimal trajectories.