On the existence of positive solution for second-order multi-points boundary value problems (Q2493934)

The paper deals with the problem of the existence of a positive solution of multipoint boundary value problems for second-order equations. In particular, they consider the nonautonomous system \( x''=f(t,x,x') \) with the conditions \[ \alpha x(0)- \beta x'(0)=0, \qquad x(1)=\sum^{m}_{i=1}\alpha_{i} x(t_{i}). \] Schauder's fixed-point theorem in some Banach space is used to obtain verifiable the conditions for the existence of a positive solution. For an autonomous system \( x''=f(x,x') \) with the conditions \[ x(0)=0, \qquad x(1)=\sum^{m}_{i=1}\alpha_{i} x(t_{i}), \] the authors develop a method based on the theory of topological degree to verify if the system has a positive solution. The results obtained are verified numerically in two examples.