Nontrivial solutions for higher-order \(m\)-point boundary value problem with a sign-changing nonlinear term (Q618060)

Using the topological degree of a completely continuous field, the authors study the existence of nontrivial solutions to the following \(m\)-point boundary value problem \[ (-1)^{n}u^{(2n)}(t)=h(t)f(t,u(t)),\quad t\in(0,1), \] \[ u^{(2i)}(0)=0,\;u^{(2i)}(1)=\sum_{j=1}^{m-2}a_{ij}u^{(2i)}(\xi_j),\quad i=0,1,\dots ,n-1, \] where \(n\geq2\), \(f:[0,1]\times \mathbb R\to \mathbb R\) is continuous and sign-changing, \(h:(0,1)\to[0,\infty)\) is continuous and may be singular at \(t=0\) or \(t=1\), \(a_{ij}>0\), \(i=0,1,\dots,n-1\), \(j=1,2,\dots,m-2,\) with \(\sum_{j=1}^{m-2}a_{ij}<1\) and \(0<\xi_1<\xi_2<\cdots <\xi_{m-2}<1\). It is assumed that there exist nonnegative functions \(b(t),c(t)\in C[0,1],c(t)\not\equiv0,\) and a continuous function \(B: \mathbb R\to[0,\infty)\) such that \[ f(t,x)\geq -b(t)-c(t)B(x)\quad\text{for}\quad x\in \mathbb R. \] Moreover, \(B\) is nondecreasing on \([0,\infty)\) with the properties \(B(-x)=B(x)\) for \(x\in\mathbb R\) and \[ \lim_{x\to+\infty}{{B(x)}\over{x}}=0. \] It is also assumed that, for \(t\in[0,1]\), \[ \lim_{x\to+\infty}\inf{{f(tx)}\over{x}}>\lambda'_1\quad\text{and}\quad\lim_{x\to0}\sup\Bigl|{{f(tx)}\over{x}}\Bigr|<\lambda'_1, \] where \(\lambda'_1\) is the first eigenvalue of a suitable linear operator.