Acta Applicandae Mathematicae 62: 155–186, 2000. © 2000 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands. 155 Extension of the Ahiezer–Kac Determinant Formula to the Case of Real-Valued Symbols with Two Real Zeros SERGIO ALBEVERIO 1 and KONSTANTIN A. MAKAROV 2 1 Institut für Angewandte Mathematik, Universität Bonn, 53115 Bonn, Germany. e-mail: Albeverio@uni-bonn.de 2 Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, U.S.A. e-mail: makarov@azure.math.missouri.edu (Received: 15 June 1998; in final form: 24 January 2000) Abstract. The Fredholm determinant asymptotics for self-adjoint convolution operators on finite intervals with real symbols vanishing on the real axis is studied. Explicit formulae are obtained in the case where the symbol satisfies the generalized zero index condition and has only two simple zeros of analytic type. These formulae are direct extensions of the Ahiezer–Kac–Szegö limit theorem which, in particular, take into account the oscillating character of the asymptotics. Mathematics Subject Classifications (2000): Primary: 45P05, 47B35; Secondary: 47A68, 47G10. Key words: Ahiezer–Kac determinant, asymptotics, convolution operators, Ahiezer–Kac–Szegö limit theorem, Wiener–Hopf decomposition, generalized zero index condition. 1. Introduction 1.1. HISTORICAL REMARKS ON SZEGÖS LIMIT THEOREM AND ITS EXTENSIONS In his fundamental work [26] Szegö proved a basic theorem on the N →∞ limit of the N × N determinant D N = det(T(N)) of a Toeplitz matrix T(N) of the form T(N) = c 0 c 1 ··· c N+1 c 1 c 0 ··· c N+2 . . . . . . . . . . . . c N1 c N2 ··· c 0 ,