Existence of at least three solutions of nonlinear three point boundary value problems with super-quadratic growth (Q864723)

The authors study, by means of upper and lower solution techniques and topological degree arguments, the existence of at least three solutions of some nonlinear three-point boundary value problem of the type \[ -u''=f(t,u,u'),\;t\in (0,1), \] \[ u'(0)=0,\;u(1)=\delta u(\eta), \] where \(\eta\in (0,1)\), \(\delta \in (0,1)\) and \(f:[0,1] \times \mathbb{R}^{2}\to \mathbb{R}\) is a continuous function. The authors allow the nonlinearity \(f\) to have a growth rate with respect to \(u'\) faster than quadratic. This requirement is weaker than the well-known Nagumo condition. The authors also provide a class of examples to better illustrate their theory.