A note on a class of problems for a higher-order fully nonlinear equation under one-sided Nagumo-type condition

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to establish existence and location results for the higher order fully nonlinear differential equation

u⁽ⁿ⁾(t)=f(t,u(t),u′(t),…,u⁽ⁿ⁻¹⁾(t)), n≥2,

with the boundary conditions

u^{(i)}(a) = A, for i=0,⋯,n-3, u⁽ⁿ⁻¹⁾(a) = B, u⁽ⁿ⁻¹⁾(b)=C

or

u^{(i)}(a)=A, for i=0,⋯,n-3, c₁u⁽ⁿ⁻²⁾(a)-c₂u⁽ⁿ⁻¹⁾(a)=B, c₃u⁽ⁿ⁻²⁾(b)+c₄u⁽ⁿ⁻¹⁾(b)=C,

with A_{i},B,C∈R, for i=0,⋯,n-3, and c₁, c₂, c₃, c₄ real positive constants. It is assumed that f:[a,b]×Rⁿ⁻¹→R is a continuous function satisfying one-sided Nagumo-type conditions which allows an asymmetric unbounded behavior on the nonlinearity. The arguments are based on Leray-Schauder topological degree and lower and upper solutions method.