A class of \(2n\)th-order singular boundary value problems (Q869816)

Necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of \(C^{2n-2}[0,1]\) and \(C^{2n-1}[0,1]\) positive solutions to the singular boundary value problem \[ (-1)^{n}x^{(2n)}(t)=f\Bigl(t,x(t),-x''(t),\dots ,(-1)^{i}x^{(2i)}(t),\dots ,(-1)^{{n-1}}x^{(2n-2)}(t)\Bigr),\quad t\in(0,1), \] \[ x^{(2i)}(0)=x^{(2i)}(1)=0,\;\;i=0,1,2,\dots ,n-2,\;n>1, \] \[ ax^{(2n-2)}(0)-bx^{(2n-1)}(0)=0,\;cx^{(2n-2)}(1)+dx^{(2n-1)}(1)=0, \] are given under the assumptions that \(a,b,c,d\geq0,\;a+b>0,\;c+d>0,\;ac+ad+bc>0,\;f\in C\Bigl((0,1)\times(0,\infty)^n,[0,\infty)\Bigr)\) and there exist constants \(\lambda_i,\mu_i\) such that \(-\infty<\lambda_i\leq0\leq\mu_i,i=1,2,\dots ,n,\;\;\sum_{i=1}^{n}\mu_i<1\) and for \(t\in(0,1)\) and \(x_i\in(0,\infty)\) \[ \begin{multlined} c^{\mu_i}f(t,x_1,x_2,\dots x_i,\dots ,x_n)\leq f(t,x_1,x_2,\dots ,cx_i,\dots ,x_n)\leq\\ \leq c^{\lambda_i}f(t,x_1,x_2,\dots x_i,\dots x_n)\;\text{ for }\;0<c\leq1,\quad i=1,2,\dots ,n.\end{multlined} \] The nonlinearity \(f(t,x_1,x_2,\dots ,x_n)\) may be singular at \(x_i=0,i=1,2,\dots ,n,\,t=0\) and/or \(t=1.\) To prove the main results the authors use the Schauder fixed point theorem, prove a suitable maximum principle and construct lower and upper solutions.