Exact number of pseudo-symmetric positive solutions for a \(p\)-Laplacian three-point boundary value problems and their applications (Q980441)

The paper deals with the following three-point boundary value problem with one-dimensional \(p\)-Laplacian \[ -(\phi_p(u'(x)))'=\lambda g(u(x))+h(u(x)),\quad u(0)=0,\;u(\eta)=u(1), \tag{1} \] where \(p>1\), \(\phi_p(y)=|y|^{p-2}y\), \(0<\eta <1\). The functions \(g,h\in C[0,\infty)\cap C^2(0,\infty)\) are supposed to be nonnegative, strictly increasing and satisfy \[ \lim_{u\to 0+}\, \frac{g(u)}{u^{p-1}}=\infty,\quad \lim_{u\to \infty}\, \frac{h(u)}{u^{p-1}}=\infty, \quad g\not= kh,\;\forall k\in R\setminus \{0\}. \] In addition, the functions \( ug'(u)/g(u)\) and \(uh'(u)/h(u)\) are nondecreasing on \((0,\infty)\). Then the authors prove that there exists \(\lambda^*\in (0,\infty)\) such that problem (1) has exactly two pseudo-symmetric positive solutions for \(0<\lambda<\lambda^*\), exactly one pseudo-symmetric positive solution for \(\lambda=\lambda^*\) and no pseudo-symmetric positive solution for \(\lambda>\lambda^*\). The arguments are based on the quadrature method. An illustrative example is given here.