Nonlinear Volterra Integral Equations and the Apéry Identities (Q4024876)

The authors study necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of nontrivial solutions of the Volterra integral equation \(u(x)=\int_0^x k(x-s) g(u(s))\,ds\). Using the identity \[ \begin{multlined} \int_a^x f(s)h(s)\,ds= \int_a^\lambda f(s)\varphi(s)\,ds+ \int_a^ \lambda [f(\lambda-f(s)][\varphi(s)-h(s)]\,ds+\\ +\int_\lambda^x [f(s)- f(\lambda)] h(s)\,ds+f(\lambda) \left[ \int_a^x h(s)\,ds- \int_a^\lambda \varphi(s)\, ds\right],\end{multlined} \] due to \textit{R. Apéry} [Atti IV. Congr. Un. Mat. Ital. 2, 3--4 (1953; Zbl 0051.04402)] they give new and simpler proofs of some results by \textit{W. Okrasiński} [SIAM J. Math. Anal. 22, 1007--1015 (1991; Zbl 0735.45005)]. Finally, they show how the results can be applied to the equation \(u(x)^\alpha= a(x) \int_0^x k(x-s)u(s)\,ds\), where \(\alpha>1\), as well.