Comparison theorems for differential equations (Q1105103)

Some interesting extensions of the following basic comparison theorem are presented: Suppose u(t) and v(t) are continuous on the interval [a,b] of the real line R, and differentiable on (a,b], f is a continuous mapping from \(R\times R\) to R and \(u(a)<v(a)\), \(du/dt-f(t,u)<dv/dt-f(t,v)\) on (a,b]. Then \(u<v\) on [a,b]. It is shown that if f(t,u) satisfies the Lipschitz condition then a strong comparison theorem can be obtained. The basic and strong comparison theorems are extended to systems of differential equations and to elliptic and parabolic partial differential equations. The linear boundary value problems are also considered.