Positive solutions of second-order differential equations (Q1879769)

The paper is concerned with the second-order nonlinear differential equation \[ y^{\prime\prime}+F(t,y)=0,\quad t\geq a, \tag \(*\) \] where \(F:[a,+\infty)\times\mathbb{R\rightarrow R}\) is a continuous nonnegative function. Using a renormalization procedure due to \textit{A. Bielecki} [Bull. Acad. Polon. Sci. 4, 261--264 (1956; Zbl 0070.08103)] and Banach's fixed-point theorem, the author improves recent result by \textit{S. G. Dubé} and \textit{A. B. Mingarelli} [Electron. J. Differ. Equ. 2004, Paper No. 22, 1--6 (2004; Zbl 1058.34035)] establishing the existence of a unique positive monotone solution \(y(t)\) of \((*)\) defined on \((a,+\infty)\) and approaching lines \(M\) at infinity. Five nicely selected examples demonstrate the advantages of the new theorem. In the second part of the paper, results from the first part are applied for proving the existence of a positive bounded solution of the semilinear Schrödinger equation \[ \Delta u+f(x,u)=0 \] in a planar exterior domain \(G_{A}=\left\{ x\in\mathbb{R}^{2}:\left| x\right| >A\right\} \) under the assumption that \(f\) is locally Hölder continuous in \(G_{A}\times\mathbb{R}\) with some \(\lambda\in(0,1).\)