An identity for a quasilinear ODE and its applications to the uniqueness of solutions of BVPs (Q2518288)

The author considers the following boundary value problem \[ (\varphi_p(u'))'+a(x)f(u)=0,\quad x_0<x<x_1, \] \[ u(x_0)=u(x_1)=0, \] where \(\varphi_p(s)=| s| ^{p-2}s, p>1,a\in C^1[x_0,x_1],a(x)>0\) for \(x\in[x_0,x_1]\), and \(f\in C^1(R)\). First, the author gives an identity for a solution of the above equation. Then, by employing the shooting method and the half-linear Prüfer transformation combined with the obtained identity, conditions for the uniqueness of a solution and the existence of three solutions for the above boundary value problem are obtained.