Comparison results and existence of bounded solutions to strongly nonlinear second order differential equations (Q1049705)

The paper provides the existence of bounded solutions on the whole real line (not necessarily heteroclinic) of the following strongly non-linear non-autonomous differential equation \[ (a(x(t))x'(t))'=f(t,x(t),x'(t)) \quad {\text a.e.}\;t\in \mathbb{R}, \tag{1} \] where \(f:\mathbb{R}^3\to \mathbb{R}\) is a Carathéodory function and \(a:\mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}\) is a generic continuous positive function. The proofs are based on fixed-point techniques suitable combined to the method of upper and lower solutions. The authors establish comparison results providing sufficient conditions for any pair of lower and upper solutions of equation (1) to be well-ordered. Combining these results they present some general classes of nonlinear equations having a well-ordered pair of lower and upper solutions which leads to the existence of a bounded solution. An example is given.