Remark on a sufficient condition for multiplicity in a model in chemical reactor theory (Q1114830)

We consider the model \[ -u''=\lambda (\sigma -u)\exp \{-k/(1+u)\};\quad x\in (0,1),\quad u(0)=0=u(1) \] which arises in chemical reactor theory. Here \(\lambda\), \(\sigma\), and k are positive constants. It is known that if there exists an \(\alpha\in (0,\sigma)\) such that \[ H(\alpha)=\int^{\alpha}_{0}f(s)ds-(\alpha /2)f(\alpha)<0 \] then there exists a range of \(\lambda\) for which there exists at least three nonnegative solutions, and using numerical evaluation it was conjectured that such values of \(\alpha\) exist. In this paper we give an analytical proof of this conjecture.