Existence and location of solutions to fourth-order Lidstone coupled systems with dependence on odd derivatives (Q2216819)

The authors are concerned with a system of two fourth-order differential equations with Lidstone boundary conditions on the interval \([0,1]\). The continuous nonlinearities therein depend on all derivatives. The existence of a pair of classical nontrivial solutions is established via the method of upper and lower solutions together with a priori estimates and a homotopy deformation. This supposes the existence of upper and lower solutions as well as Nagumo growth conditions of the nonlinear functions in terms of the third derivatives. A first example of application is supplied to support the existence result. A second example modeling the road of a suspension bridge is discussed, too.