Positive symmetric solutions of a second-order difference equation (Q365940)

The authors study the boundary value problem \[ \Delta^2u_k + f(u_k) = 0\;,\;0\leq k\leq N-2\;;\;u_0 = u_N =0, \] with \(f: \mathbb R_+\to \mathbb R_+\) being continuous. They give conditions for the existence of at least one positive symmetric solution of this problem i.e. satisfying \(u_k = u_{N-k}\) and belonging to the set \[ A(\alpha,\beta;a,d) = \{x\in P:a\leq\alpha(x),\beta(x)\leq d\}, \] where \(P\) is the cone of nonnegative, symmetric nondecreasing sequences on \(\{0,1,\dots,N\}\) satisfying \[ wu_y \geq yu_w\;,\;w\geq y, \] with \(w,y\in\{0,1,\dots,N\}\).