Positive solutions for higher order multi-point boundary value problems with nonhomogeneous boundary conditions (Q968853)

The authors discuss the existence of positive solutions for the \(n\)th order boundary value problem \[ \begin{aligned} &u^{(n)}+g(t)f(t,u)=0, \quad 0<t<1,\\ &u(0)=u(1)=0,\end{aligned} \] and one of the two nonhomogeneous multi-point boundary conditions \[ \begin{cases} u^{(i)}(0)=(\alpha,u^{(i)}(\xi))+\lambda_i, \quad i=0,\dots,n-3,\\ u^{(n-1)}(0)=(\beta,u^{(n-1)}(\xi))-\lambda_{n-2},\\ u^{(n-2)}(0)=(\gamma,u^{(n-2)}(\xi))+\lambda_{n-1} \end{cases} \] or \[ \begin{cases} u^{(i)}(0)=(\alpha,u^{(i)}(\xi))+\lambda_i, \quad i=0,\dots,n-3,\\ u^{(n-2)}(0)=(\beta,u^{(n-2)}(\xi))+\lambda_{n-2},\\ u^{(n-1)}(0)=(\gamma,u^{(n-1)}(\xi))+\lambda_{n-1}, \end{cases} \] where \(g\in C(0,1)\) and the nonlinearity \(f\in C[0,1]\) is nonnegative. By means of a Green function, the problem is formulated as a fixed point problem for an integral operator in the natural positive cone of continuous functions. The fixed point index of cones of Banach spaces is then used to prove the existence of a solution under some assumptions on the behavior of the ratio \(\frac{f(t,x)}{x}\) near \(0\) and \(\infty\).