Prescribed asymptotic behaviour of solutions to semilinear ordinary differential equations (Q2470334)

The paper discusses a general problem in asymptotic integration theory. Given the differential equations \[ u^{\prime}+f(t,u)=0\text{ and }v^{\prime}+g(t,v)=0 \] on a positive half-axis. The first result reads as: Let \(P(t)\geq0\) be a continuous function \(P\) that eventually decays to \(0\) as \(t\rightarrow+\infty\) and let \(v(t)\) be a solution of the second differential equation. If for every real-valued continuous function \(u(t)\) with \(| u(t)-v(t)|\leq P(t)\) one has \[ \left|\int_{t}^{+\infty}[f(s,u(s))-g(s,v(s))]ds\right|\leq P(t) \] throughout the positive half-axis, then the first equation has a solution \(u(t)\) in this class of functions. A very interesting dual result is established (the second result): given a real-valued continuous function \(k(t)\) such that \(\int^{+\infty}k(t)dt=+\infty\) and the constants \(\lambda>0\), \(\alpha\in(0,1)\) with \[ k(t)\geq2(1-\alpha)^{-1}\max\limits_{\xi\in[-\lambda,\lambda]}| f_{v}^{\prime}(t,v(t)+\xi)|,\quad t\geq T>0. \] Assume that the first differential equation has a solution \(u(t)\) such that \[ | u(t)-v(t)|\leq\lambda\alpha\exp\left(-\int_{T}^{t}k(s)ds\right). \] Then, every real-valued continuous function \(\tilde{u}(t)\) which verifies \[ | \tilde{u}(t)-v(t)|\leq P(t) \text{ for } P(t)\equiv\lambda\exp\left(-\int_{T}^{t}k(s)ds\right) \] also verifies \[ \left|\int_{t}^{+\infty}[f(s,\tilde{u}(s))-g(s,v(s))]ds\right|\leq P(t). \] By these theorems, the author investigates the existence of a solution to a differential equation that approaches in a vicinity of \(+\infty\) a prescribed solution of another (simpler) differential equation with a prescribed (also) decay and then characterizes the nature of such prescribed decay controls with respect to the nonlinearities of the equations. A minor restriction should be added, in my opinion, to the hypotheses of this dual result for the proof to work properly: the set of functions \(\tilde{u}\) consists of the functions which verify \(| \tilde{u}(t)-v(t)|\leq P(t)\) together with \(\lim\limits_{t\rightarrow+\;infty}\int_{T}^{t}[f(s,\tilde{u}(s))-g(s,v(s))]ds\in\mathbb{R}\). Several well-chosen examples accompany the presentation. This paper will be of interest for anyone working in asymptotic integration theory as such results on the nature of decay are seldom in the literature.