Positive solutions for one-dimensional \(p\)-Laplacian boundary value problems with sign changing nonlinearity (Q732574)

The authors are concerned with the existence of positive solutions to the following boundary value problem: \[ \begin{cases} (\phi_p(u'))'+f(t,u,u')=0, &0<t<1,\\ u'(0)=\sum_{i=1}^{n}\alpha_iu'(\xi_i), &u(1)=\sum_{i=1}^{n}\beta_iu(\xi_i) \end{cases} \] where \(0<\xi_1<\xi_2<\dots\xi_{n}<1,\) \(\alpha_i,\beta_i\geq0\,\text{ for }\,i=1,2,\dots,n\) and \(0\leq\sum_{i=1}^{n}\alpha_i,\sum_{i=1}^{n}\beta_i<1.\) The function \(f: [0,1]\times[0,\infty)\times(-\infty,0]\longrightarrow(-\infty,+\infty)\) is continuous. \(\phi_p(s)=| s|^{p-2}s,\;p>1\) is the so-called \(p-\)Laplacian. The authors prove the existence of positive, nonincreasing, and concave solutions under a monotonicity condition together with sublinear and superlinear growth of the nonlinearity \(f=f(t,u,v)\) with respect to \(u, v.\) Regarding positivity, they assume \(f(t,u,v)>0\) for \(t\in[0,1], u\in[\eta r,\infty), v\in(-\infty,0]\) for some \(r.\) The proof uses the classical Krasnosel'skii compression and expansion fixed point theorem on cones of Banach spaces. Computing the fixed point index, the authors also prove the existence of twin positive solution. The paper finishes with an example.