Oscillation of linear and half-linear differential equations via generalized Riccati technique (Q2674030)

The authors study the half-linear second order differential equation and derive new oscillation criteria for the equation \[ \left(t^\alpha r^{1-p}(t) \Phi(x'(t))\right)'+t^{\alpha -p}s(t)\Phi(x(t)) =0, \] where \(\Phi(x)=|x|^{p-1}\mathop{\mathrm{sgn}} x\), \(p>1\), \(\alpha<p-1\), the functions \(r:[a,\infty)\to (0,\infty)\), \(s: [a,\infty)\to (-\infty,\infty)\) are continuous function and \[ \int_a^\infty \tau^{\alpha(1-p)}r(\tau)\,\mathrm{d}\tau=\infty, \quad \int_a^\infty \tau ^{\alpha-p}s(\tau)\,\mathrm{d}\tau\in\mathbb{R}. \] Using generalized Riccati equation the authors prove new oscillation criteria for the second order half-linear equation. The main role is played by the integral \[ \int_a^\infty \frac{p^ps(\tau)-(p-\alpha-1)^p r^{1-p}(\tau)}{\tau}\,\mathrm d\tau=\infty. \] It is worth to mention that the results are very general and have direct applications which allows to get efffetive oscillation criteria for special cases, such as the case \(\alpha =0\). The results are new even in the linear case \(p=2\).