Positive solutions for doubly nonlocal boundary value problem with time-varying convolution coefficients (Q6910984)

The authors establish the existence of at least one positive solution for a class of second-order nonlocal boundary value problems with a nonlinear term depending on the derivative, namely,\N\[\N\left\{\begin{array}{l} -M((b *(g \circ u))(t))\, u^{\prime \prime}(t)=f\left(t, u(t), u^{\prime}(t)\right), \quad t \in(0,1), \\\Nu(0)=\beta[u], \quad u^{\prime}(1)=0 . \end{array}\right.\N\]\NHere, the functional \(\beta[u]:=\int_0^1 u(s)\,\mathrm{d} B(s)\) is a positive linear functional defined via a Riemann-Stieltjes integral, where \(B\) is a nonnegative and nondecreasing function. The notation \((a * b)(t)\) denotes the finite convolution of two functions \(a, b \in L^1(0, \infty)\), defined by\N\[\N(a * b)(t):=\int_0^t a(t-s)\, b(s)\, \mathrm{d} s, \quad t \geq 0.\N\]\NUnder suitable assumptions on the functions \(f\) and \(B\), the authors show that the solutions of the problem coincide with the fixed points of the operator \(T: C^1[0,1] \rightarrow C^1[0,1]\) defined by\N\[\N(T u)(t)=\int_0^1(M((b *(g \circ u))(s)))^{-1} G(t, s)\, f\left(s, u(s), u^{\prime}(s)\right)\, \mathrm{d} s, \quad t \in[0,1],\N\]\Nwhere \(G\) denotes the corresponding Green's function.\N\NThe existence result is obtained by means of topological degree theory. Finally, several examples are provided to illustrate the applicability of the theoretical results.