Global existence of nonoscillatory solutions of perturbed general disconjugate equations (Q1099319)

Let \(p_ i>0\) and \(p_ i\in C[a,\infty)\) for \(0\leq i\leq n\), and let \(\int^{\infty}p_ i(t)dt=\infty\) \((1\leq i\leq n-1)\). Define the quasi- derivatives \(L_ 0u,...,L_{n-1}u\) by \(L_ 0u=u/p_ 0\) and \(L_ ru=(L_{r-1}u)'/p_ r\quad (1\leq r\leq n-1);\) in particular, \(L_ n\) \((n\geq 2)\) is the general disconjugate operator \[ L_ n=\frac{1}{p_ n}\frac{d}{dt}\frac{1}{p_{n-1}}\frac{d}{dt}...\frac{d}{dt}\frac{1}{p_ 1}\frac{d}{dt}\frac{.}{p_ 0}. \] Let f: [a,\(\infty)\times {\mathbb{R}}^ n\to {\mathbb{R}}\) be continuous. The main results are integrability conditions on f which imply that the equation \((A)\quad L_ nu+f(t,L_ 0,L_ 1u,...,L_{n-1}u)=0\) has a solution which behaves in a precisely defined sense like a given solution of the unperturbed equation \(L_ nx=0\). These include a general lemma which simplifies the application of the Schauder-Tychonoff theorem to this problem, and a theorem which extends results of \textit{A. M. Fink} and the first author [Jap. J. Math., New Ser. 9, 277-291 (1983; Zbl 0536.34048)]. Some of these results are global, in that the desired solution of (A) is shown to exist on a given interval \([t_ 0,\infty)\). As an application, the main results are used to establish the existence of solutions of the semilinear elliptic equation \(\Delta^ nv+\phi (| x|,v,\Delta v,...,\Delta^{n- 1}v)=0\) with prescribed asymptotic behavior as \(| x| \to \infty.\) Note: There is an error of omission in the hypotheses \((H_ 1)\) and \((H_ 2)\) of Corollary 2. The convergence to zero in both cases should be monotonic with respect to \(\lambda\) for every \((t,v_ 0,...,v_{n- 1})\) in \([t_ 0,\infty)\times {\mathbb{R}}^ n_+\).