Global bifurcation results for general Laplacian problems (Q361209)

The authors investigate the bifurcation problem with general one-dimensional Laplacian \[ \begin{cases} -(\phi(u'(t)))'=\lambda\psi(u(t))+f(t,u,\lambda), \;t\in (0,1),\\ u(0)=u(1)=0, \end{cases}\tag{1} \] where \(f:[0,1]\times\mathbb{R} \times\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) is continuous on its variables, \(f(t,u,0)=0\) and \(\phi,\psi :\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) are odd increasing homeomorphisms of \(\mathbb{R}\) with \(\phi(0)=\psi(0)=0\) under the following conditions: \[ \lim_{s\to 0}\frac{\phi(\sigma(t))}{\psi(t)}=\sigma^{p-1}\text{ for all }\sigma \in \mathbb{R}_+,\text{ for some }p>1;\tag{\(\Phi_1\)} \] \[ \lim_{s\to 0}\frac{\phi(\sigma(t))}{\psi(t)}=\sigma^{q-1}\text{ for all }\sigma \in \mathbb{R}_+,\text{ for some }q>1;\tag{\(\Phi_2\)} \] \[ f(t,u,\lambda)=o(|\psi(u)|)\text{ near zero, uniformly for \(t\) and \(\lambda\) in bounded intervals;}\tag{\(F_1\)} \] \[ f(t,u,\lambda)=o(|\psi(u)|)\text{ near infinity, uniformly for \(t\) and \(\lambda\) in bounded intervals;}\tag{\(F_2\)} \] \[ uf(t,u,\lambda)\geq 0.\tag{\(F_3\)} \] The main results of the article are presented in the form of two theorems about global bifurcations. Theorem 1. In the introduced assumptions \((\Phi_1)\)--\((F_3)\) for any \(j\in \mathbb{N}\), there exists a connected component \(C_j\) of the set of nontrivial solutions for (1) connecting \((0,\lambda_j(p))\) to \((\infty, \lambda_j(q))\) such that \((u, \lambda)\in C_j\) implies that \(u\) has exactly \(j-1\) simple zeros in \((0,1)\), where \(\lambda_j(r)\) is the \(j\)-th eigenvalue of \((\phi_r(u'(t)))'+\lambda\psi_r(u(t))=0\) and \(u(0)=u(1)=0\). Theorem 2. For problem \[ \begin{cases} -(\phi(u'(t)))'=g(t,u), \;t\in (0,1),\\ u(0)=u(1)=0, \end{cases} \tag{2} \] where \(g:[0,1]\times\mathbb{R} \times\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}\) is continuous and \(\phi\) is an odd increasing homeomorphism of \(\mathbb{R}\), which satisfies \((\Phi_1)\) and \((\Phi_2)\) with \(\phi=\psi\). Also, \(ug(t,u)\geq 0\) and there exist positive integers \(k, n\) with \(k\leq n\) such that \(\mu=\lim_{s\to 0}\frac{g(t,s)}{\psi(s)}<\lambda_k(p)\leq \lambda_n(q)<\lim_{|s|\to \infty}\frac{g(t,s)}{\psi(s)}=\nu\) uniformly in \(t\in [0,1]\). Then, for each integer \(j\) with \(k\leq j\leq n\), problem (2) has a solution with exactly \(j-1\) simple zeros in \((0,1)\). Thus (2) possesses at least \(n-k+1\) nontrivial solutions.