Global secondary bifurcation in a nonlinear boundary value problem (Q1963965)

The author deals with a scalar differential equation arising from a model for the formation of vascular networks in response to tumour growth. The steady-state solutions to the model can be represented by the equation \[ -D{d\over dx} \Biggl[{dn\over dx}- nh(x)\Biggr]=\lambda n(1- n),\quad x\in(0,1), \] subject to the boundary conditions \[ {dn\over dx}- nh(x)= 0\quad\text{at }x= 0,1, \] where the parameters \(D\) and \(\lambda\) are positive numbers and the function \(h(x)\) is Lipschitz continuous on \([0,1]\). Nonnegative solutions to (1), (2) are considered and the existence of a positive bounded solution for all values of \(\lambda\geq 0\) is proved. The proof is based on an investigation of global bifurcations from both trivial and nontrivial solution branches.