Number of zeros of solutions to singular initial value problems (Q1127018)

Three kinds of singular initial value problems are considered for a second order ordinary differential equations of the form \[ (| v_{t}| ^{m-1} \text{sgn}(v_{t}))_{t}+k(t)f(v)=0,\quad t>0,\;m>1. \tag{1} \] This equation plays an important role in the investigation of radially symmetric solutions of suitable \(m\)-Laplace equations in \({\mathbb R}^{n}\). Moreover, most of previous papers deal with the particular case \(m=2\). Using systematically the Pohozaev type identity, certain sharp sufficient conditions on the functions \(k(t)\) and \(f(t)\) are given, so that any solution of \((1)\) has a finite number of zeros or infinitely many zeros in \((0,1)\) or \((1,\infty)\). These theorems modify and generalize some previous results by authors cited in the paper.