A breakthrough took place in the von Neumann algebra theory when the Tomita-Takesaki theory was established around 1970. Since then, many important issues in the theory were developed through 1970s by Araki, Connes, Haagerup, Takesaki and others, which are already very classics of the von Neumann algebra theory. Nevertheless, it seems still difficult for beginners to access them, though a few big volumes on the theory are available. These lecture notes are delivered as an intensive course in 2019, April at Department of Mathematical Analysis, Budapest University of Technology and Economics. The course was aimed at giving a fast track study of those main classics of the theory, from which people gain an enough background knowledge so that they can consult suitable volumes when more details are needed.
For an arbitrary open, nonempty, bounded set $Omega subset mathbb{R}^n$, $n in mathbb{N}$, and sufficiently smooth coefficients $a,b,q$, we consider the closed, strictly positive, higher-order differential operator $A_{Omega, 2m} (a,b,q)$ in $L^2(Omega)$ defined on $W_0^{2m,2}(Omega)$, associated with the higher-order differential expression $$ tau_{2m} (a,b,q) := bigg(sum_{j,k=1}^{n} (-i partial_j - b_j) a_{j,k} (-i partial_k - b_k)+qbigg)^m, quad m in mathbb{N}, $$ and its Krein--von Neumann extension $A_{K, Omega, 2m} (a,b,q)$ in $L^2(Omega)$. Denoting by $N(lambda; A_{K, Omega, 2m} (a,b,q))$, $lambda > 0$, the eigenvalue counting function corresponding to the strictly positive eigenvalues of $A_{K, Omega, 2m} (a,b,q)$, we derive the bound $$ N(lambda; A_{K, Omega, 2m} (a,b,q)) leq C v_n (2pi)^{-n} bigg(1+frac{2m}{2m+n}bigg)^{n/(2m)} lambda^{n/(2m)} , quad lambda > 0, $$ where $C = C(a,b,q,Omega)>0$ (with $C(I_n,0,0,Omega) = |Omega|$) is connected to the eigenfunction expansion of the self-adjoint operator $widetilde A_{2m} (a,b,q)$ in $L^2(mathbb{R}^n)$ defined on $W^{2m,2}(mathbb{R}^n)$, corresponding to $tau_{2m} (a,b,q)$. Here $v_n := pi^{n/2}/Gamma((n+2)/2)$ denotes the (Euclidean) volume of the unit ball in $mathbb{R}^n$. Our method of proof relies on variational considerations exploiting the fundamental link between the Krein--von Neumann extension and an underlying abstract buckling problem, and on the distorted Fourier transform defined in terms of the eigenfunction transform of $widetilde A_{2} (a,b,q)$ in $L^2(mathbb{R}^n)$. We also consider the analogous bound for the eigenvalue counting function for the Friedrichs extension $A_{F,Omega, 2m} (a,b,q)$ in $L^2(Omega)$ of $A_{Omega, 2m} (a,b,q)$. No assumptions on the boundary $partial Omega$ of $Omega$ are made.