Existence of countably many positive solutions of \(n\)th-order \(m\)-point boundary value problems (Q1002191)

Consider an \(m\)-point boundary value problem associated to the \(n\)-th order strongly nonlinear equation \[ (\phi(p(t)u^{n-1})(t))'+a(t) f(u(t),u'(t), \dots, u^{n-2}(t))=0, \] where \(\phi:{\mathbb R} \to {\mathbb R}\) is not necessarily an odd increasing positive homeomorphism s.t. \(\phi(0)=0\), \(f:[0,+\infty)^{n-1}\to [0,+\infty)\), \(p\) positive and nondecreasing and \(a\) a non-negative function having countably many singularities in \([0,1/2).\) Under some technical assumptions which, among others, require a control of the growth of \(f\) by means of \(\phi\), the existence of infinitely many positive solutions is proved. The proofs are performed in the framework of fixed point index theory in cones; in particular it is applied an abstract result (published in Chinese) on the existence of at least three fixed points.