Electronic Journal of Differential Equations, Vol. 2007(2007), No. 16, pp. 1–8. ISSN: 1072-6691. URL: http://ejde.math.txstate.edu or http://ejde.math.unt.edu ftp ejde.math.txstate.edu (login: ftp) POSITIVE SOLUTIONS FOR SEMIPOSITONE FOURTH-ORDER TWO-POINT BOUNDARY VALUE PROBLEMS DANDAN YANG, HONGBO ZHU, CHUANZHI BAI Abstract. In this paper we investigate the existence of positive solutions of the following nonlinear semipositone fourth-order two-point boundary-value problem with second derivative: u(4) (t) = f (t, u(t), u00 (t)), 0 00 000 u (1) = u (1) = u (1) = 0, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, ku(0) = u000 (0), where −6 < k < 0, f ≥ −M , and M is a positive constant. Our approach relies on the Krasnosel’skii fixed point theorem. 1. Introduction Recently an increasing interest in studying the existence of positive solutions for fourth-order two-point boundary value problems is observed. Among others we refer to [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. In this paper we consider the positive solutions of the following nonlinear semipositone fourth-order two-point boundary value problem with second derivative: u(4) (t) = f (t, u(t), u00 (t)), 0 00 000 u (1) = u (1) = u (1) = 0, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, ku(0) = u000 (0), (1.1) where −6 < k < 0, f is continuous and there exists M > 0 such that f ≥ −M . This implies that f is not necessarily nonnegative, monotone, superlinear and sublinear. And also this assumption implies that the problem (1.1) is semipositone . The purpose of this paper is to establish the existence of positive solutions of problem (1.1) by using Krasnosel’skii fixed point theorem in cones. The rest of this paper is organized as follows: in section 2, we present some preliminaries and lemmas. Section 3 is devoted to proving the existence of positive solutions of problem (1.1). An example is considered in section 4 to illustrate our main results. 2000 Mathematics Subject Classification. 34B16. Key words and phrases. Boundary value problem; Positive solution; semipositone; fixed point. c 2007 Texas State University - San Marcos. Submitted August 3, 2006. Published January 23, 2007. Supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Education Office and by Jiangsu Planned Projects for Postdoctoral Research Funds. 1 2 D. YANG, H. ZHU, C. BAI, EJDE-2007/16 2. Preliminaries and lemmas Let C 2 [0, 1] be the Banach space with norm kuk0 = max{kuk, ku00 k}, where kuk = max |u(t)|, u ∈ C[0, 1]. 0≤t≤1 By routine calculation, we easily obtain the following Lemma. Lemma 2.1. If k 6= 0, then u(4) (t) = h(t), 0 00 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, 000 u (1) = u (1) = u (1) = 0, ku(0) = u000 (0), has a unique solution Z 1 G(t, s)h(s)ds, u(t) = 0 where the Green function is 1 G(t, s) = − 6 ( 6 k 6 k + s3 , − (s − t)3 + s3 , 0 ≤ s ≤ t ≤ 1, 0 ≤ t ≤ s ≤ 1. Remark 2.2. If −6 < k < 0, then 0 < (1 + 1 k )G(0, s) ≤ G(t, s) ≤ G(0, s) = max G(t, s) = − 0≤t≤1 6 k (2.1) in closed bounded region D = {(t, s) : 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, 0 ≤ s ≤ 1}. Let Z p(t) := 1 G(t, s)ds = 0 1 1 4 1 3 1 2 1 t − t + t − t− , 24 6 4 6 k 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. Since 1 3 1 2 1 1 t − t + t− 6 2 2 6 1 1 p00 (t) = t2 − t + = 2 2 p0 (t) = 1 = − (1 − t)3 ≤ 0, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, 6 1 (1 − t)2 ≥ 0, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, 2 we have 1 kpk = max p(t) = p(0) = − , 0≤t≤1 k min p(t) = p(1) = − 0≤t≤1 kp00 k = max |p00 (t)| = 0≤t≤1 1 1 − , k 24 1 . 2 (2.2) (2.3) Our approach is based on the following Krasnosel’skii fixed point theorem. Lemma 2.3. Let X be a Banach space, and K ⊂ X be a cone in X. Assume Ω1 , Ω2 are bounded open subsets of K with 0 ∈ Ω1 ⊂ Ω1 ⊂ Ω2 , and let F : K → K be a completely continuous operator such that either (1) kF uk ≤ kuk, u ∈ ∂Ω1 , and kF uk ≥ kuk, u ∈ ∂Ω2 , or (2) kF uk ≥ kuk, u ∈ ∂Ω1 , and kF uk ≤ kuk, u ∈ ∂Ω2 . Then F has a fixed point in Ω2 \ Ω1 . EJDE-2007/16 POSITIVE SOLUTIONS FOR FOURTH-ORDER BVPS 3 To apply the Krasnosel’skii fixed point theorem, we need to construct a suitable cone. Let C02 [0, 1] = {u ∈ C 2 [0, 1] : u(t) ≥ 0, u00 (t) ≥ 0, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, u0 (1) = u00 (1) = u000 (1) = 0, ku(0) = u000 (0)}. It is easy to check that the following set P is a cone in C 2 [0, 1]: k P = u ∈ C02 [0, 1] : min u(t) ≥ (1 + )kuk , 0≤t≤1 6 where −6 < k < 0. For convenience, let α(r) = max{f (t, u, v) : (t, u, v) ∈ D1 (r)}, (2.4) β(r) = min{f (t, u, v) : (t, u, v) ∈ D2 (r)}, (2.5) where 1 1 M M ≤ u ≤ r + ( + )M, − ≤v≤r , D1 (r) = (t, u, v) : 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, k k 24 2 1 3 1 175 1 85 D2 (r) = (t, u, v) : ≤ t ≤ , ( + )M ≤ u ≤ r + ( + )M, 4 4 k 6144 k 2048 9 1 − M ≤v≤r− M . 32 32 Z 1 Z 1 i−1 o nh i−1 h , max |G00 (t, s)|ds = min{−k, 2}, C1 = min max G(t, s)ds 0≤t≤1 C2 = max 0≤t≤1 0 nh 3 4 Z max 0≤t≤1 0 3 4 Z i−1 h G(t, s)ds , max 0≤t≤1 1 4 i−1 o |G00 (t, s)|ds 1 4 1 1 −1 32 − = max + . , 2k 6144 9 Obviously, 0 < C1 < C2 . n 3. Main results Theorem 3.1. Let −6 < k < 0. Assume that M M f : [0, 1] × [ , +∞) × [− , +∞) → [−M, +∞) (3.1) k 2 is continuous, where M > 0 is a constant. Suppose there exist two positive numbers −6 r1 and r2 with min{r1 , r2 } > 6k+k 2 M such that α(r1 ) ≤ r1 C1 − M, β(r2 ) ≥ r2 C2 − M, (3.2) where α, β are as in (2.4) and (2.5), respectively. Then problem (1.1) has at least one positive solution. Proof. Let u0 (t) = M p(t), 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. Then by (2.1) and (2.3) we have 1 1 M 1 (− − )M ≤ u0 (t) ≤ − , 0 ≤ u000 (t) ≤ M, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. k 24 k 2 Consider the fourth-order two-point boundary-value problem u(4) (t) = f (t, u(t) − u0 (t), u00 (t) − u000 (t)) + M, 0 00 000 u (1) = u (1) = u (1) = 0, 000 ku(0) = u (0), (3.3) 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, (3.4) 4 D. YANG, H. ZHU, C. BAI, EJDE-2007/16 This problem is equivalent to the integral equation Z 1 u(t) = G(t, s)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds. 0 For u ∈ C02 [0, 1], we define the operator A as follows Z 1 G(t, s)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds, (Au)(t) = 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. 0 Computing the second derivative of (Au)(t), we obtain Z 1 00 (Au) (t) = (s − t)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. t Noticing (3.3) and that u ∈ C02 [0, 1], we have M ≤ u(t) − u0 (t) < +∞, k 1 − M ≤ u00 (t) − u000 (t) < +∞, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. 2 Thus, from (3.1) we get (Au)(t) ≥ 0, (Au)00 (t) ≥ 0, t ∈ [0, 1]. By the definition of G(t, s), G0 (1, s) = G00 (1, s) = G000 (1, s) = 0, and G000 (0, s) = kG(0, s) = −1, which implies that (Au)0 (1) = (Au)00 (1) = (Au)000 (1) = 0, and k(Au)(0) = (Au)000 (0). Hence, A : C02 [0, 1] → C02 [0, 1]. Moreover, for each t ∈ [0, 1], (By (2.1) we have Z 1 (Au)(t) = G(t, s)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds 0 k ≥ (1 + ) 6 Z 1 G(0, s)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds 0 Z 1 k ) max G(t, s)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds 6 0≤t≤1 0 k = (1 + )kAuk. 6 Thus, A : P → P . We can check that A is completely continuous by routine method. Since C1 < C2 , it is easy to check that r1 6= r2 . Without loss of generality, we assume r1 < r2 . Let ≥ (1 + Ω1 = {u ∈ P : kuk0 < r1 }, Ω2 = {u ∈ P : kuk0 < r2 }. If u ∈ ∂Ω1 , then kuk0 = r1 . So, kuk ≤ r1 and ku00 k ≤ r1 . This implies 0 ≤ u(t) ≤ r1 0 ≤ u00 (t) ≤ r1 , By (2.2), for 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, we have 1 1 1 M ≤ u(t) − u0 (t) ≤ r1 + + M, k k 24 By (3.2), 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. 1 − M ≤ u00 (t) − u000 (t) ≤ r1 . 2 f (t, u(t) − u0 (t), u00 (t) − u000 (t)) ≤ α(r1 ) ≤ r1 C1 − M, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. EJDE-2007/16 POSITIVE SOLUTIONS FOR FOURTH-ORDER BVPS 5 It follows that 1 Z G(t, s)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds kAuk = max 0≤t≤1 0 1 Z ≤ r1 C1 max G(t, s)ds ≤ r1 , 0≤t≤1 1 Z 00 |G00 (t, s)|[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds k(Au) k = max 0≤t≤1 0 0 1 Z |G00 (t, s)|ds ≤ r1 . ≤ r1 C1 max 0≤t≤1 0 Therefore, kAuk0 ≤ r1 = kuk0 . If u ∈ ∂Ω2 , then kuk0 = r2 . So, kuk ≤ r2 and ku00 k ≤ r2 . This implies that 0 ≤ u(t) ≤ r2 , 0 ≤ u00 (t) ≤ r2 , 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. Since − 85 1 3 1 175 1 1 3 − = p( ) ≤ p(t) ≤ p( ) = − − , ≤t≤ , 2048 k 4 4 6144 k 4 4 1 1 9 1 3 00 2 ≤ p (t) = (1 − t) ≤ , ≤t≤ , 32 2 32 4 4 we have ( 1 175 1 85 + )M ≤ u(t) − u0 (t) ≤ r2 + ( + )M, k 6144 k 2048 1 3 ≤t≤ , 4 4 and 9 M M ≤ u00 (t) − u000 (t) ≤ r2 − , 32 32 Thus, by (3.2) we obtain − 1 3 ≤t≤ . 4 4 f (t, u(t) − u0 (t), u00 (t) − u000 (t)) ≥ β(r2 ) ≥ r2 C2 − M, 1 3 ≤t≤ . 4 4 From this, 3 4 Z kAuk ≥ max 0≤t≤1 1 4 G(t, s)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds 3 4 Z ≥ r2 C2 max G(t, s)ds ≥ r2 , 0≤t≤1 1 4 and k(Au)00 k ≥ max 3 4 Z 0≤t≤1 1 4 G00 (t, s)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds 3 4 Z ≥ r2 C2 max 0≤t≤1 G00 (t, s)ds ≥ r2 . 1 4 It follows that kAuk0 ≥ r2 = kuk0 . By Lemma 2.3, we assert that the operator A has at least one fixed point u ∈ P with r1 ≤ kuk0 ≤ r2 . This implies that (3.4) has at least one solution u ∈ P with r1 ≤ kuk0 ≤ r2 . 6 D. YANG, H. ZHU, C. BAI, EJDE-2007/16 Let u∗ (t) = u(t) − u0 (t), 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. We will check that u∗ is a solution of the problem (1.1). In fact, since Au = u, we have u∗ (t) + u0 (t) = u(t) = (Au)(t) Z 1 = G(t, s)[f (s, u(s) − u0 (s), u00 (s) − u000 (s)) + M ]ds 0 1 Z G(t, s)f (s, u∗ (s), u00∗ (s))ds + u0 (t). = 0 It follows that Z u∗ (t) = 1 G(t, s)f (s, u∗ (s), u00∗ (s))ds, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. 0 In other words, u∗ is a solution of (1.1). Therefore, the problem (1.1) has at least one solution u∗ satisfying u∗ + u0 ∈ P and r1 ≤ ku∗ + u0 k0 ≤ r2 . 6 Since r1 = min{r1 , r2 } > − 6k+k 2 M , we have u∗ (t) = [u∗ (t) + u0 (t)] − u0 (t) = [u∗ (t) + u0 (t)] − M p(t) M k )ku∗ (t) + u0 (t)k + 6 k 6 k M ] > 0, ≥ (1 + )[r1 + 6 6k + k 2 ≥ (1 + 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, which implies that u∗ is a positive solution of (1.1). Using Theorem 3.1, we can prove following result. Theorem 3.2. Let −6 < k < 0. Assume that M M f : [0, 1] × [ , +∞) × [− , +∞) → [−M, +∞) (3.5) k 2 is continuous, where M ≥ 0 is a constant. Suppose that there exist three positive 6 numbers r1 < r2 < r3 with r1 > − 6k+k 2 M such that one of the following conditions is satisfied: (1) α(r1 ) ≤ r1 C1 − M , β(r2 ) > r2 C2 − M , α(r3 ) ≤ r3 C1 − M ; (2) β(r1 ) ≥ r1 C2 − M , α(r2 ) < r2 C1 − M , β(r3 ) ≥ r3 C2 − M . Then problem (1.1) has at least two positive solutions. 4. Examples Example 4.1. Consider the boundary-value problem u(4) (t) = f (t, u(t), u00 (t)), 0 00 000 u (1) = u (1) = u (1) = 0, 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, −2u(0) = u000 (0), (4.1) where f : [0, 1] × [−1, +∞) × [−1, +∞) → [−2, +∞) is defined by 2 √ √ t + u + 1 + 9 v +√1 − 2, (t, u, v) ∈ [0, 1] × [−1, − 21 ] × [−1, − 21 ], √ t2 + u + 9 v + 1 + 2 − 15 , (t, u, v) ∈ [0, 1] × [− 1 , ∞) × [−1, − 1 ], 4 2 8 2 2 √ f (t, u, v) = 2 √ t + u + 1 + v5 + 92 2 − 19 , (t, u, v) ∈ [0, 1] × [−1, − 12 ] × [− 12 , ∞), 10 √ 2 u v t + 4 + 5 + 5 2 − 71 (t, u, v) ∈ [0, 1] × [− 21 , ∞) × [− 12 , ∞). 40 , EJDE-2007/16 POSITIVE SOLUTIONS FOR FOURTH-ORDER BVPS 7 Thus, k = −2, M = 2, C1 = 2 and C2 = 6144 1537 . For 11 D1 (r) = (t, u, v) : 0 ≤ t ≤ 1, −1 ≤ u ≤ r − , −1 ≤ v ≤ r , 12 1 3 2897 939 9 1 D2 (r) = (t, u, v) : ≤ t ≤ , − ≤u≤r− , − ≤v≤r− . 4 4 3072 1024 16 16 By simple computations, we obtain α(6) = max{f (t, u, v) : (t, u, v) ∈ D1 (6)} 61 1 1 1 1 61 = max f (1, , 6), f (1, , − ), f (1, − , 6), f (1, − , − ) 12 12 2 2 2 2 61 = f (1, , 6) = 8.76 < 10 = 6C1 − M, 12 and β( 13 ) 8 13 = min f (t, u, v) : (t, u, v) ∈ D2 ( ) 8 1 2897 9 1 2897 1 1 1 9 1 1 1 = min f ( , − , − ), f ( , − , − ), f ( , − , − ), f ( , − , − ) 4 3072 16 4 3072 2 4 2 16 4 2 2 1 2897 9 13 = f( , − , − ) = 4.76 > 4.49 = C2 − M. 4 3072 16 8 Take r1 = 6 and r2 = 13 8 . Then (3.2) holds. Moreover, we have 13 3 6 > =− M. 8 2 6k + k 2 So, by Theorem 3.1, problem (4.1) has at least one positive solution. min{r1 , r2 } = References [1] A. R. Aftabizadeh; Existence and uniqueness theorems for fourth-order boundary problems, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 116 (1986) 415-426. [2] R. P. Agarwal; Focal Boundary Value Problems for Differential and Difference Equations, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht, 1998. [3] Z. Bai, H. Wang; On positive solutions of some nonlinear fourth-ordr beam equations, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 270 (2002) 357-368. [4] J. R. Graef, B. Yang; On a nonlinear boundary value problem for fourth order equations, Appl. Anal. 72 (1999) 439-448. [5] Yanping Guo, Weigao Ge, Ying Gao; Twin positive solutions for higher order m-point boundary value problems with sign changing nonlinearities, Appl. Anal. Comput. 146 (2003) 299311. [6] Z. Hao, L. Liu; A necessary and sufficiently condition for the existence of positive solution of fourth-order singular boundary value problems, Appl. Math. Lett. 16 (2003) 279-285. [7] B. Liu; Positive solutions of fourth-order two-point boundary value problems, Appl. Math. Comput. 148 (2004) 407-420. [8] M. A. D. Peno, R. F. Manasevich; Existence for a fourth-order boundary value problem under a two-parameter nonresonance condition, Proc. Amer. Math. Soc. 112 (1991) 81-86. [9] Yu Tian, Weigao Ge; Twin positive solutions for fourth-order two-point boundary value problems with sign changing nonlinearities, Electronic Journal of Differential Equations, Vol. 2004 (2004) No. 143, 1-8. Dandan Yang Department of Mathematics, Yanbian University, Yanji, Jilin 133000, China. Department of Mathematics, Huaiyin Teachers College, Huaian, Jiangsu 223001, China E-mail address: yangdandan2600@sina.com 8 D. YANG, H. ZHU, C. BAI, EJDE-2007/16 Hongbo Zhu Department of Mathematics, Yanbian University, Yanji, Jilin 133000, China. Department of Mathematics, Huaiyin Teachers College, Huaian, Jiangsu 223001, China E-mail address: zhuhongbo8151@sina.com Chuanzhi Bai Department of Mathematics, Huaiyin Teachers College, Huaian, Jiangsu 223001, China E-mail address: czbai8@sohu.com