On the maximum and antimaximum principles for the beam equation (Q254028)

The authors obtain sufficient conditions on \(c\) and \(h\), to ensure the existence of positive and/or negative solutions of the problem \[ \begin{aligned} u^{(4)}+c(x)\, u(x)=h(x) > 0, \quad t \in [0,1], \\ u(0)=u(1)=u''(0)=u''(1)=0.\end{aligned} \] The obtained results are derived from suitable inequalities that involve the maximum and the minimum of functions \(h\) and \(c\) with the integral of the negative part of \(c\) and some estimation of its positive part. The proofs follow from iterative methods and use previously known comparison results. They generalize previous results given by the same authors in [Appl. Math. Lett. 51, 1--7 (2015; Zbl 1331.34036)] and improve previous results given in the literature, where a uniform estimation for the function \(c\), optimal in the constant case, is given for any \(h \geq 0\).