Further results on fixed-sign solutions for a system of higher-order difference equations (Q1600396)

The authors investigate the existence of single and double fixed-sign solutions of the system of \(n\)th-order boundary value problems \[ \begin{aligned} \Delta ^n u_i(k-1)+f_i(k,\widetilde u_1(k),\widetilde u_2(k),\dots , \widetilde u_m(k))&=0, \quad k\in \{ 1,2,\dots ,T+1\}, \\ \Delta ^ju_i(0)&=0, \quad 0\leq j\leq n-3,\\ \alpha _i\Delta ^{n-2}u_i(0)-\beta _i \Delta ^{n-1}u_i(0)&=0,\\ \gamma _i\Delta ^{n-2}u_i(T+1)+\delta _i\Delta ^{n-1}u_i(T+1)&=0, \end{aligned} \] where \(i\in \{ 1,2,\dots ,m\}\), \(\Delta \) is the forward difference operator with stepsize \(1\), \(\widetilde u_i(k)=(u_i(k),\Delta u_i(k),\dots ,\Delta ^{n-2}u_i(k))\), \(n\), \(T\) are integers with \(n\geq 2\), \(T\geq n-1\) and \(\alpha _i\), \(\beta _i\), \(\gamma _i\), \(\delta _i\) are constants. With \(\theta _i\), \(1\leq i\leq m\) given, a solution is said to be of fixed-sign if for each \(1\leq i\leq m\) we have \(\theta _iu_i\geq 0\). The used method is based on Krasnosel'skii's fixed-point theorem in a cone and on some inequalities concerning a certain Green's function.