I was wondering about the following: Let $T : dom(T) \subset H \rightarrow H$ be a self-adjoint operator, does this mean that the domain of $T$ is uniquely defined or is it possible to make the same operator self-adjoint on two different domains?
If anything is unclear, please let me know.
Just as an example, consider the operator $\frac{d^{2}}{dx^{2}}$ on the set $\mathscr{D}$ of all twice absolutely continuous functions $f \in L^{2}[0,2\pi]$ with $f'' \in L^{2}[0,2\pi]$. Then $T_{\alpha,\beta}=\frac{d^{2}}{dx^{2}}$ is selfadjoint on the domain $\mathcal{D}(T_{\alpha,\beta})$, $0 \le \alpha,\beta < \pi$ consisting of all $f \in \mathscr{D}$ for which $$ \cos\alpha f(0)+\sin\alpha f'(0)=0,\\ \cos\beta f(2\pi)+\sin\beta f'(2\pi)=0. $$ That's a two parameter family of domains on which the same operator $\frac{d^{2}}{dx^{2}}$ is selfadjoint. It's also selfadjoint on the domain where $$ f(0)=f(2\pi),\;\;\; f'(0)=f'(2\pi). $$ (There are other periodic types of conditions that work, too.) These are different operators, with a lot of spectral variation.
Is that what you had in mind?