Bounded positive solutions of an iterative three-point boundary-value problem with integral boundary condtions (Q2053165)

The authors study the following boundary value problem consisting by a third-order iterative differential equation subject to integral boundary conditions of the form \[\begin{cases} x'''(t)+f\big(x^{[0]}(t), x^{[1]}(t), x^{[2]}(t), \ldots, x^{[n]}(t)\Big)=0,\\ x(0)=x''(0)=0, ~~ \alpha\int_0^{\eta}x(s)ds=x(T), ~~ \eta\in (0,T), \end{cases} \] where \(x^{[0]}(t)=t\), \( x^{[1]}(t)=x(t)\), \( x^{[2]}(t)=x(x(t))\), \(\ldots\), \(x^{[n]}(t)=x^{[n-1]}(t)\) are the iterates of the state \(x(t)\), \(\alpha\in \mathbb{R}^*\) and \(f: [0,T]\times \mathbb{R}\to [0,\infty)\) is a continuous function. Existence, uniqueness and continuous dependence of bounded positive solutions are investigated via Schauder's fixed point theorem combined with the Arzelá-Ascoli theorem. An example illustrating the main results is also presented.