Limiting cases of asymptotically positive linear conditions and solvability of Sturm-Liouville boundary-value problems for Duffing equations (Q2501479)

The authors consider the nonlinear Sturm-Liouville boundary value problem \[ (p(t)x'(t))' + q_0(t)x(t) + h(t,x(t)) + g(t,x(t)) = 0, \] \[ x(0) \cos\alpha - p(0)x'(0)\sin\alpha =0, \] \[ x(1) \cos\beta - p(1)x'(1)\sin\beta =0, \] where the function~\(p\) is positive and absolutely continuous, \(q_0\in L^1(0,1)\) is such that the problem with \(h=g=0\) admits a solution that is strictly positive on~\((0,1)\), and \(h\) and \(g\) are \(L^1\)-Carathéodory functions (i.e., \(h(t,\cdot)\) and \(g(t,\cdot)\) are continuous on \({\mathbb R}\) for a.e.~\(t\in(0,1)\), and, for every constant~\(r>0\), \(h\) and \(g\) are dominated \(t\)-a.e.\ for all \(x\in{\mathbb R}\) with \(| x| \leq r\) by an \(L^1(0,1)\)-function \(\rho_r\)). Under certain additional assumptions on the nonlinearities (which might be regarded as limiting cases of the asymptotically positive linear conditions) the problem is shown to possess at least one solution. The results obtained generalize several previous existence results for nonlinear Sturm-Liouville boundary value problems.