Positive solutions for second-order superlinear repulsive singular Neumann boundary value problems (Q941696)

The paper discusses the Neumann boundary value problem \[ \begin{cases} x''+m^2x=f(t,x),& 0<t<1\\ x'(0)=0,\quad x'(1)=0, \end{cases} \] where \(m\in(0,\pi/2)\) is a constant. The nonlinearity \(f\) has a repulsive singularity near \(x=0\), namely \[ \lim_{x\to0^+}f(t,x)=+\infty\quad\text{ uniformly in } t, \] or near \(x=\infty,\) namely \[ \lim_{x\to+\infty}\frac{f(t,x)}{x}=+\infty\quad\text{ uniformly in } t. \] The authors first consider the positone case, that is when \(f(t,x)>0\) for all \(t\in[0,1]\) and all \(x>0.\) Assuming further growth conditions on the nonlinearity \(f\), they prove the existence of one positive solution (by means of the Leray-Schauder nonlinear alternative) and then another positive solution (by Krasnoselskii's fixed point theorem of cone compression and expansion). Similar results are then obtained when the nonlinearity is semipositone, that is when \(f\) may change sign but is lower-bounded by a negative constant: there exists \(M>0\) such that \[ f(t,x)+M\geq0,\quad \forall\,(t,x)\in[0,1]\times(0,\infty). \] The proofs of the main existence theorems rely on a priori estimates and sequential arguments.