Positive solutions of singular boundary value problems with indefinite weight (Q1420757)

The authors study the existence of positive solutions of the singular second-order problem \[ -(p\, u')'(t)=\lambda q(t) g(u(t)), \;t \in (0,1), \quad a u(0)-b (pu')(0)=0, \quad cu(1)+d(pu')(1)=0, \] with \(p(t) >0\) but possibly vanishing at \(t=0\) or \(t=1\) and \(q(t)>0\) but possibly unbounded near \(t=0\) or \(t=1\). Moreover \(a\), \(b\), \(c\), \(d \geq 0\) and \(a+b\), \(a+c\), \(c+d>0\). To this end, they prove that, under suitable assumptions on the functions \(p\) and \(f\), if there exists a pair of well ordered lower and upper solutions to the second-order singular problem \[ -(p\, u')'(t)=f(t,u(t)), \;t \in (0,1), \quad a u(0)-b (pu')(0)=0, \quad cu(1)+d(pu')(1)=0, \] then it has at least one solution lying between both functions. Conditions for the nonexistence of positive solutions to the problem \(-(p\, u')'(t)+ q(t) g(u(t)) =0\), \(t \in (0,1)\), \(u(0)=0\), \(u(1)=0,\) are also given.