Non-homogeneous boundary conditions for a fourth-order diffusion equation (Q2472976)

The paper deals with a one dimensional nonlinear fourth-order elliptic equation arising in quantum semiconductor modeling \[ (e^v v_{xx})_{xx}=0,\quad x\in (0,1). \leqno(1) \] The authors propose to study the general class of two-point boundary conditions \[ g(v(0),v(1),v_x(0),v_x(1),v_{xx}(0),v_{xx}(1),v_{xxx}(0), v_{xxx}(1))=0, \leqno(2) \] where \(g:R^8\to R^4\) is continuous. Not every choice of \(g\) leads to a well-posed problem and the authors show the existence of solutions with admisible set of boundary conditions by employing topological degree methods. Moreover, they provide examples of other classes of boundary conditions for which (1) does not admit solutions.