On the oscillation of solutions of second order quasilinear ordinary differential equations (Q1321770)

The paper deals with oscillation properties of the nonlinear second order differential equation \((*)\) \((r(t)\psi(y'))'+ f(t,y)= 0\), \(t\geq t_ 0\), under the assumptions i) \(\lim_{t\to\infty} r(t)=\infty\), ii) \(\psi\in C^ 1({\mathbf R})\), \(\psi\) is odd and \(\psi'(s)>0\), iii) \(f\) is nondecreasing with respect to \(y\) and \(\text{sgn } f(t,y)=\text{sgn } y\) for \(t\geq t_ 0\). The authors treat separately the cases \(\int^ \infty r^{-1}(t)dt= \infty\) and \(\int^ \infty r^{-1}(t)dt< \infty\). In either case, criteria are established which give conditions for the existence of various types of nonoscillatory solutions or for all solutions to be oscillatory. The obtained results are used to study oscillation properties of the partial differential equation \[ \text{div }\left[{Du\over (1+ | Du|^ 2)^ m}\right]+ F(| x|,u)= 0, \] where \(m\in \bigl(0,{1\over 2}\bigr]\), \(Du=\bigl({\partial\over \partial x_ 1} u,\dots,{\partial\over \partial x_ n} u\bigr)\). A typical result of the paper is: Theorem. Suppose that \(\int^ \infty r^{-1}(t)dt= \infty\). Equation \((*)\) has a nonoscillatory solution satisfying \[ \lim_{t\to\infty}{y(t)\over \int^ t_{t_ 0} r^{- 1}(s)ds}= \text{const }\neq 0 \] if and only if \[ \int^ \infty_{t_ 0} | f\left(t,c \int^ t_{t_ 0} r^{-1}(s)ds\right) dt< \infty \] for some nonzero constant \(c\in {\mathbf R}\).