On constant--sign solutions of a system of discrete equations (Q1428982)

The authors study the system of difference equations \[ u_i(k) = \sum_{\ell =0}^N g_i(k,\ell) f_i(\ell,u_1(\ell),\dots, u_n(\ell)), \quad k \in \{ 0,\dots,T \} \] for fixed \(T \geq N \in \mathbb{N} \cup \{ \infty \}, \, i \in \{ 1,\dots,n \}\). They give criteria for existence and the number of nontrivial solutions fulfilling the constant-sign condition \[ \theta_i u_i(k) \geq 0;\;k \in \{ 0,\dots,T \},\quad \theta_i \in\{ -1,+1 \}, \quad i \in \{ 1,\dots,n \}. \] The methods for proving the results are essentially the Leray-Schauder-alternative and the Krasnoselskii fixed point theorem in a cone. In the second part of the paper the results are applied to several well-known discrete boundary value problems.