The oscillation of half-linear differential equations with an oscillatory coefficient (Q1381766)

The authors derive lower bounds for the distance between consecutive zeros of a solution of the second-order half-linear differential equation \[ \Bigl(| y'(t)| ^{\alpha -1}y'(t)\Bigr)'+q(t)| y(t)| ^{\alpha -1}y(t)=0, \tag{*} \] where \(q(t):[t_0,\infty)\to\mathbb{R}\) is locally integrable for some \(t_0\geq 0\) and \(\alpha >0\) is a constant. Using these lower bounds, conditions ensuring that the distance between consecutive zeros of any oscillatory solution \(y\) to (*) is unbounded as \(t\to\infty\) are established. Two obtained theorems are applied to the equation \[ \Bigl(p(t)| y'(t)| ^{\alpha -1}y'(t)\Bigr)'+q(t)| y(t)| ^{\alpha -1}y(t)=0, \tag{**} \] with \(\int ^\infty p(t)^{-1/\alpha} dt=\infty\). The special attention is given to the equation (**) with \(p(t)=t^{N-1}\) and \(q(t)=t^{N-1}h(t)\). In the linear case \(\alpha=1\), the results for (*) reduce to those given by \textit{B. J. Harris} and \textit{Q. Kong} [Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 347, No. 5, 1831-1839 (1995; Zbl 0829.34025)].