A singular boundary value problem for odd-order differential equations (Q1433375)

An existence theorem is proved guaranteeing \(AC^{2n}(J)\)- solutions for the singular boundary value problem \[ (-1)^{n}x^{(2n+1)}(t)=f(t,x(t),\dots,x^{2n}(t)), \] \[ x^{(2n)}(0)=0,\quad x^{(2j)}(0)=x^{(2j)}(T)=0,\quad 0\leq j\leq n-1. \] Here, the positive function \(f\) satisfies local Carathéodory conditions, i.e., \(f\in \text{Car}(J\times D_n)\), and may be singular at the value zero of all its phase variables, i.e., \(\lim_{x_j\to0}f(t,x_0,\dots,x_j,\dots,x_{2n})=\infty\), \(0\leq j\leq 2n\), for a.e. \(t\in J\) and each \((x_0,\dots,x_{j-1},x_{j+1},\dots,x_{2n})\) such that \[ (x_0,\dots,x_{j-1},x_j,x_{j+1},\dots,x_{2n})\in D_n, \] where \(D_n\subset \mathbb{R}^{2n+1}\) is a suitable set, \(J=[0,T]\), and \(T\) is a positive number. In addition, \(f\) is such that there exist constants \(S\in(0,\infty)\), \(r\in[0,1)\) and suitable functions \(h\in \text{Car}(J\times[0,+\infty))\) and \(\omega_j\in C^0(0,+\infty)\) such that \[ {S\over t^r}\leq f(t,x_0,\dots,x_{2n})\leq h\biggl(t,\sum^{2n}_{j=0}| x_j| \biggr)+ \sum^n_{j=0}\omega_{2j}\bigl(| x_{2j}| \bigr)+\sum^{n-1}_{j=0}\omega_{2j+1}\bigl(| x_{2j+1}| \bigr) \] for a.e. \(t\in J\) and \((x_0,\dots,x_{2n})\in D_n\). The authors proceed as follows: construct a sequence of auxilary regular BVPs, prove the solvability of each of the regular BVPs by the topological transversality principle and apply a modification of a known general existence theorem.