Spectral theorem for compact self-adjoint linear relations with an application to elliptic boundary value problems

Abstract

We establish a spectral theorem for compact self-adjoint linear relations on a Hilbert space. The proof relies on the Arens decomposition of a closed linear relation into an operator part and a purely multivalued part, reducing the problem directly to the classical spectral theorem for compact self-adjoint operators. No finite-dimensionality condition is imposed on the multivalued part. We also prove a finiterank approximation theorem for compact bounded linear relations and a Fredholm alternative for compact self-adjoint linear relations. As an application, we employ the theory of boundary triples to show that the inverse of the Neumann Laplacian on a bounded domain is a compact self-adjoint linear relation. The abstract spectral theorem then recovers the classical eigenfunction expansion of solutions to the Neumann problem: an L2-convergent series in terms of the non-constant Neumann eigenfunctions together with an arbitrary additive constant. The framework extends naturally to general elliptic boundary value problems with finite-dimensional kernel.