Positive solutions of singular boundary value problems on the half-line (Q2479254)

The singular boundary value problem \[ (p(t)x'(t))'+\lambda(f(t,x(t))-k^2x(t))=0,\;\;t\in(0,\infty), \] \[ \alpha_1x(0)-\beta_1\lim_{t\to0^+}p(t)x'(t)=0,\quad\alpha_2\lim_{t\to+\infty}x(t) +\beta_2\lim_{t\to+\infty}p(t)x'(t)=0, \] is studied. Here, \(\lambda>0\) is a parameter, \(k\in R\), \(\alpha_i,\beta_i\geq0,i=1,2,\) with \(\alpha_2\beta_1+\alpha_1\beta_2+\alpha_1\alpha_2\int_0^\infty{1\over{p(t)}}\,dt>0,\) the function \(p\in C[0,\infty)\cap C^1(0,\infty)\) is such that \(p(t)>0\) for \(t\in(0,\infty)\) and \(\int_0^{\infty}{1\over{p(t)}}\,dt<\infty\), and the function \(f:(0,\infty)\times[0,\infty)\to[0,\infty)\) is continuous (it may be singular at \(t=0\)) and the inequalities \[ k^2u\leq f(t,u)\leq\phi(t)g(t,u)\text{ for }(t,u)\in(0,\infty)\times[0,\infty) \] hold for any continuous functions \(\phi:(0,\infty)\to[0,\infty)\) and \(g:[0,\infty)\times[0,\infty)\to[0,\infty)\) such that \(\phi\) is singular at \(t=0\), \(\phi(t)\not\equiv0\) on \([0,\infty)\), \(g\) is bounded for \(t\in[0,\infty)\) and \(u\) in any bounded set of \([0,\infty)\) and \(\int_0^\infty G(s,s)\phi(s)\,ds<\infty\), where \(G(t,s)\) is the Green function for the considered problem in the case \(f\equiv0\) and \(\lambda=1\). Assuming in addition that \(g\) and \(f\) have a suitable behaviour when \(u\to0^+\) and \(u\to+\infty\), the authors prove that the problem has at least one positive solution. Moreover, to apply a known fixed point result, they show that the operator \(T:K\to X\), defined by \[ (Tx)(t)=\lambda\int_0^\infty G(t,s)(f(s,x(s))-k^2x(s))\,ds,\quad t\in[0,\infty), \] is completely continuous, here \(X=\{x\in C[0,\infty):\lim_{t\to+\infty}x(t)\,\text{exists}\}\), \(K=\{x\in X:x(t)\geq0\,\text{for}\,t\in[0,\infty)\;\text{and}\;x(t)\geq\omega\| x\| \,\text{for}\,t\in[a,b]\}\), and the constant \(\omega\) and the interval \([ab]\subset(0,\infty)\) are suitable.