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 | | The systematic study of self-adjoint differential operators of the second order on a finite interval dates from 1830 (the Sturm–Liouville problem) and was the subject of intensive study in the 19th century, in particular in connection with the theory of special functions. |
 | | The theory of singular differential operators began in 1909–1910, when the spectral decomposition of a self-adjoint unbounded differential operator of the second order with an arbitrary spectral structure was discovered, and when, in principle, the concept of a deficiency index was introduced, and the first results in the theory of extensions were obtained. |
 | | The systematic investigation of non-self-adjoint singular differential operators began in 1950, when the foundations of the theory of operator pencils were expounded and a method was found for proving the completeness of the system consisting of the eigenfunctions of a differential operator and of their associates. |
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