Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of positive solutions of fourth order multi-point boundary value problems (Q1049043)

The authors prove a necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of positive solutions to the singular three-point boundary value problem \[ \phi_p(u''(t))''=f(t,u(t),-u''(t)), t \in (0,1), \] \[ u'(0)=0, (\phi_p(u''))'(0)=0, u(1)=\alpha_0 u(\eta), u''(1)=\phi_p^{-1}(\alpha_1)u''(\eta), \] where \(\phi_p(s)=|s|^{p-2}s, p>1, \alpha_0,\alpha_1, \eta \in (0,1), f \in C((0,1) \times [0,+\infty) \times ]0,+\infty), [0,+\infty)).\) It is assumed that \(f(t, {{1-\alpha_i \eta}\over{1-\alpha_i}}-t, 1) \not\equiv 0, i=0,1.\) A class of functions satisfying all the assumptions consists of functions of the form \(f(t,x,y)=\sum_{k=1}^{m} \sum_{j=1}^{n} p_{kj}(t) x^{l_j}y^{r_k},\) where \(p_{kj}\) are positive continuous functions and \(0 \leq r_k <p-1<l_j + r_k.\) The particular case when \(f\) is independent of \(-u''\) is considered as well. For the proof, a fixed point theorem in cones is applied.