Eigenvalue distribution of second-order dynamic equations on time scales considered as fractals

Let T⊂[a,b] be a time scale with a,b∈T. In this paper we study the asymptotic distribution of eigenvalues of the following linear problem −uΔΔ=λuσ, with mixed boundary conditions αu(a)+βuΔ(a)=0=γu(ρ(b))+δuΔ(ρ(b)). It is known that there exists a sequence of simple eigenvalues {λk}k; we consider the spectral counting function , and we seek for its asymptotic expansion as a power of λ. Let d be the Minkowski (or box) dimension of T, which gives the order of growth of the number K(T,ε) of intervals of length ε needed to cover T, namely K(T,ε)≈εd. We prove an upper bound of N(λ) which involves the Minkowski dimension, N(λ,T)⩽Cλd/2, where C is a positive constant depending only on the Minkowski content of T (roughly speaking, its d-volume, although the Minkowski content is not a measure). We also consider certain limiting cases (d=0, infinite Minkowski content), and we show a family of self similar fractal sets where N(λ,T) admits two-side estimates.