Existence-uniqueness results for a class of singular boundary value problems arising in physiology (Q2472798)

The singular boundary value problem \[ -(p(x)y')'=q(x)f(x,y),\;\;0<x\leq b, \] \[ y'(0)=0,\;\;\alpha_1y(b)+\beta_1y'(b)=\gamma_1 \] is considered. Here \(\alpha_1>0\), \(\beta_1\geq0\) and \(\gamma_1\) are constants, \(p\in C^1((0,b),(0,\infty))\), \(q\in L^1\Bigl((0,b),(0,\infty)\Bigr)\), and there are \(r_i>b, i=1,2,\) such that \(xp'(x)/p(x)\) is analytic in \(\{z:| z| <r_1\}\) and \(x^2q(x)/p(x)\) is analytic in \(\{z:| z| <r_2\}\). Using a monotone iterative method and eigenfunction expansion in \(L^2_q(0,b)\) (with an inner product defined by \(\langle f,g\rangle=\int^b_0q(x)f(x)\overline{g(x)}\,dx\)), the authors establish a solution in the region \(D_0=\{(x,y):0\leq x\leq b, v_0\leq y\leq u_0\}\), where the functions \(v_0,u_0\in C^2(0,b]\) are such that \(v_0(x)\leq u_0(x)\) for \(x\in(0,b]\), \(v_0\) satisfies \[ -(p(x)v'_0)'\leq q(x)f(x,v_0),\;\;0<x\leq b,\quad v'_0(0)=0,\quad \alpha_1v_0(b)+ \beta_1v'_0(b)\leq\gamma_1, \] and \(u_0\) satisfies the contrary inequalities. Moreover, the authors show that the solution is unique if \(f(t,x)\) is continuous and there is a constant \(K_1(D_0)\) such that \(K_1(u-v)\leq f(x,u)-f(x,v)\).