Higher order boundary value problems with \(\phi\)-Laplacian and functional boundary conditions (Q534961)

The authors study the existence of solutions of the \(n\)-th order nonlinear functional boundary problem \[ (\phi(u^{(n-1)}(t)))'+f(t,u(t),u'(t), \dots,u^{(n-1)}(t))=0,\quad t \in (0,1), \] \[ g_i(u(0),u'(0), \dots,u^{(n-1)}(0))=0,\quad i=0, \dots, n-2, \] \[ g_{n-1}(u(1),u'(1), \dots,u^{(n-1)}(1))=0. \] Here, \(n \geq 2\) is an integer, \(\phi\) is an increasing homeomorphism, \(f\) is a Carathéodory function on \((0,1) \times {\mathbb R}^n\) and \(g_i\) are continuous functions on \(C([0,1])^n \times {\mathbb R}\) for \(i=0,\dots,n-1\). The authors prove the existence of solutions by assuming that there is a pair of coupled lower and upper solutions. Several examples are given to illustrate the obtained results.