Existence of symmetric positive solutions for a class of Sturm-Liouville-like boundary value problems (Q833129)

The authors study the Sturm-Liouville-like boundary value problem \[ (\phi_p(u'(t)))'+\psi(t)f(t, u(t), u'(t)),\;0<t<1,\;u(0)-\alpha u'(\xi)=0,\;u(1)+\alpha u'(\eta)=0, \tag{P} \] where \(\phi_p(x)=|x|^{p-2}x\), \(p>1\). By using the fixed point theorem of cone expansion and compression of norm type in a cone, the existence of at least one positive symmetric solution is established. It is worth noticing that the nonlinear term contains the first derivative of the unknown function.