Existence of positive solutions for second-order third-point semipositive BVP (Q1983354)

The authors study the existence of positive solutions of the following second-order three-point semipositive BVP: \[ \begin{cases}(L x)(t)+\lambda a(t, x)+\mu b(t, x), & 0 \leq t \leq 1, \\ x(0)=0, \ x(1)=\alpha x(\xi),\end{cases} \] where \((L u)(t)=u^{\prime \prime}(t)+f(t) u^{\prime}(t)+g(t) u(t)\), \(\lambda, \mu\) are positive parameters, \(0<\xi<1\), \(f(t) \in C[0,1]\), and \(g(t) \in C([0,1]\), \((-\infty, 0))\). And our paper also allows that \(a(t, x), b(t, x)\) are both semipositive and lower unbounded. For a suitable set of values of the parameters \(\lambda\) and \(\mu\), they prove the existence of positive solutions to the boundary value problem under the condition that \(a(t,x)\), \(b(t,x)\) are all superlinear (sublinear), or one is superlinear, the other is sublinear. The result is proved by the application of the classical expansion/compression Krasnoselskii's theorem applied on suitable cones, constructed by means of the properties of the related Green's function.