GENERALIZED PHASE-INTEGRALS FOR LINEAR HOMOGENEOUS ODES

Using a surprising result for the Wronskian of solutions with a common factor we show that all of the linearly independent solutions of line ar-homogeneous ODEs have a simple form in a generalized phase-integral representation. This allows the generalization of WKB-like expansions to higher-order differential equations in a way that extends the usua l phase-integral methods. This work clarifies the internal structure o f phase-integral representations as being discrete transforms over the quasiphases of the linearly independent ODE solutions and hence clari fies the structure of solutions to linear ODEs.