On numerical studies of multi-point boundary value problem and its fold bifurcation (Q870200)

The nonlinear second order multi-point boundary value problem \(u''+f(t,u)=0\), \(t\in (0,1)\) with the boundary conditions \(u(0)=\sum_{i=1}^{n-2}a_iu(\xi_i)+\lambda_1,\;u'(1)=\sum_{i=1}^{n-2} b_iu'(\xi_i)+\lambda_2\) is investigated. Here the function \(f\) is Lipschitz continuous with respect to \((t,u)\) and \(f'_u\) is continuous in \([0,1]\times\mathbb{R}\), and \(0<\xi_1<\xi_2<\dots<\xi_{n-2}<1\), \(n\in \mathbb{Z} \). The authors suggest a numerical approximating method based upon the shooting method for finding regular solutions and simple fold bifurcation solutions and their structure depending on a parameter. The other types of boundary conditions \(u(0),u(1);u'(0),u(1)\) and \(u'(0),u'(1)\) can be investigated analogously. The results of many numerical experiments are given, which show the genericity of the fold bifurcation phenomenon in these problems.