Positive solutions of the nonlinear fourth-order beam equation with three parameters (Q1766695)

The authors study the existence of positive solutions to the beam equation \[ u^{(4)}(t)+\eta u''(t)-\zeta u(t)=\lambda f(t,u(t)) \tag{1} \] with the boundary conditions \[ u(0)=u(1)=u''(0)=u''(1)=0, \tag{2} \] where \(t\in (0,1)\) and \(\lambda\), \(\zeta\) and \(\eta\) are parameters. Using properties of the fixed-point index for completely continuous operators in cones, the authors show that the number of positive solutions of (1)--(2) is determined by the parameter \(\lambda\). Moreover, the monotone iterative technique is applied to obtain a uniqueness criterion for a positive solution of (1)--(2).