Positive solutions to a singular second-order three-point boundary value problem (Q1861052)

The authors establish an existence result for positive solutions to a singular second-order tree-point boundary value problem. The boundary value problem has the form \[ -y''= Q(x)f(y),\quad 0<x<1,\qquad y(0)= 0,\quad y(1)=\alpha y(\eta), \] where \(0<\eta<1\), \(0<\alpha\eta<1\), \(Q\in C([0,1];\mathbb R_+)\), \(f\in C(\mathbb R_+;\mathbb R_+)\), \(\mathbb R_+=[0,+\infty)\), and \(f\) is superlinear or sublinear at \(y=0\) and \(y=+\infty\). Related results can be found in [\textit{M. A. Krasnosel'skij}, Positive solutions of operator equations, Groningen: P. Noordhoff (1964; Zbl 0121.10604) and \textit{R. Ma}, Electron. J. Differ. Equ. 1999, Paper No. 34 (1999; Zbl 0926.34009)]. A fixed-point theorem combined with the method of constructing Green functions for operators defined piecewise is used.