New existence theorems of positive solutions for Sturm-Liouville boundary value problems (Q1421259)

The authors give theorems for the existence of positive solutions for the BVP \[ \begin{gathered} (p(t)u'(t))'+\lambda a(t)f(t,u(t))= 0,\\ \alpha_1 u(0)- \beta_1 p(0)u'(0)= 0= \alpha_2 u(1)+ \beta_2 p(1)u'(1),\end{gathered} \] without the restriction \(f(t,u)\geq -M\) for \((t,u)\in [0,1]\times \mathbb{R}^+\). To this end, the authors introduce the mapping \(\theta: C[0,1]\to C[0,1]\) defined by \[ (\theta x)(t)= \max\{x(t), w(t)\}\quad\text{for }x\in C[0,1], \] where \(w(t)\) is a given nonnegative function on \(C[0,1]\), and define an operator from a cone to a cone. Based on Krasnoselskii's fixed-point theorem, the authors removed the usual restriction on \(f\).