Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 196 (2006) 155 – 161

www.elsevier.com/locate/cam

Existence and uniqueness of solutions for singular fourth-order

boundary value problems夡
Xiaoning Lina, b,∗ , Daqing Jianga , Xiaoyue Lia
a School of Mathematics and Statistics, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China
b School of Business, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China

Received 8 June 2005; received in revised form 10 August 2005

Abstract
By mixed monotone method, the existence and uniqueness are established for singular fourth-order boundary value problems.
The theorems obtained are very general and complement previous known results.
© 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

MSC: 34B15; 34B16

Keywords: Mixed monotone operator; Fourth-order boundary value problem; Singular; Existence; Uniqueness

1. Introduction

In recent years, the study of fourth-order boundary value problems have been studied extensively in the literature (see
for instance [1–3,7–12] and their references). In paper [9], the authors obtained some newest results for the singular
fourth-order boundary value problems. But there is no result on the uniqueness of solution for singular fourth-order
boundary value problems.
In this paper, first we get a unique fixed point theorem for a class of mixed monotone operators. Our idea comes from
the fixed point theorems for mixed monotone operators (see [4–6]). In virtue of the theorem, we consider the following
singular fourth-order boundary value problem:


x (4) (t) +
x  (t) = f (t, x), 0 < t < 1,  > 0,
(1.1)
x(0) = x(1) = x  (0) = x  (1) = 0,

where f (t, x) ∈ C((0, 1) × (0, +∞), (0, +∞)) and
< 2 .

夡 Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of PR China (No. 10171010).
∗ Corresponding author. School of Business, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, PR China. Tel.: +86 431 5515009.
E-mail address: linxn989@nenu.edu.cn (X. Lin).

0377-0427/$ - see front matter © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cam.2005.08.016
156 X. Lin et al. / Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 196 (2006) 155 – 161

If
= 0, the existence of positive solutions of (1.1) has been studied in [10]. They show the existence of one
positive solution when f (t, x) is nonsingular and either superlinear or sublinear in x by employing a cone extension or
compression theorem.

2. Preliminaries

Suppose that x is a positive solution of (1.1). Then

 1 1
x(t) =  G1 (t, )G2 (, s)f (s, x(s)) ds d, 0
t
1, (2.1)
0 0

where G1 (t, s) is Green’s function to −x  = 0, x(0) = x(1) = 0, and G2 (t, s) is Green’s function to −x  −
x =
0, x(0) = x(1) = 0. In particular,


t (1 − s), 0
t
s
1,
G1 (t, s) =
s(1 − t), 0
s
t
1,
and one can show that
t (1 − t)G1 (s, s)
G1 (t, s)
G1 (s, s) = s(1 − s), G1 (t, s)
t (1 − t),
(t, s) ∈ [0, 1] × [0, 1]. (2.2)

Set  = |
|. If
< 0, then G2 (t, s) is explicitly given by
⎧ sinh t sinh (1 − s)
⎪
⎨ , 0
t
s
1,
 sinh 
G2 (t, s) =
⎪
⎩ sinh s sinh (1 − t)
, 0
s
t
1.
 sinh 
If
= 0, then G2 (t, s) = G1 (t, s). If 0 <
< 2 , then G2 (t, s) is explicitly given by
⎧ sin t sin (1 − s)
⎪
⎨ , 0
t
s
1,
 sin 
G2 (t, s) =
⎪
⎩ sin s sin (1 − t)
, 0
s
t
1.
 sin 
Clearly G2 (t, s) > 0 for (t, s) ∈ (0, 1) × (0, 1).
By using (2.1) and (2.2), we see that for every positive solution x of (1.1), one has
 1 1
x
 G1 (, )G2 (, s)f (s, x(s)) ds d,
0 0
 1 1
x(t) t (1 − t) G1 (, )G2 (, s)f (s, x(s)) ds d
0 0

t (1 − t)x, (2.3)

where x = sup{|x(t)|; 0
t
1}.

Let
 1
G(t, s) = G1 (t, )G2 (, s) d, (2.4)
0

thus by (2.1), one has

 1
x(t) =  G(t, s)f (s, x(s)) ds, 0
t
1, (2.5)
0
 X. Lin et al. / Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 196 (2006) 155 – 161 157

and by (2.2) one has

 1  1
t (1 − t) G1 (, )G2 (, s) d
G(t, s)
t (1 − t) G2 (, s) d. (2.6)
0 0

Let P be a normal cone of a Banach space E, and e ∈ P with e
1, e  = . Define
Qe = {x ∈ P | there exist constants m, M > 0 such that me
x
Me}.
Now we give a definition (see [5]).

Definition 2.1. Assume A : Qe × Qe → Qe . A is said to be mixed monotone if A(x, y) is nondecreasing in x and

nonincreasing in y, i.e., if x1
x2 (x1 , x2 ∈ Qe ) implies A(x1 , y)
A(x2 , y) for any y ∈ Qe , and y1
y2 (y1 , y2 ∈ Qe )
implies A(x, y1 )A(x, y2 ) for any x ∈ Qe . x ∗ ∈ Qe is said to be a fixed point of A if A(x ∗ , x ∗ ) = x ∗ .

Theorem 2.1. Suppose that A: Qe × Qe → Qe is a mixed monotone operator and ∃ a constant , 0
 < 1, such that

1
A tx, y t  A(x, y), ∀x, y ∈ Qe , 0 < t < 1. (2.7)
t
Then A has a unique fixed point x ∗ ∈ Qe . Moreover, for any (x0 , y0 ) ∈ Qe × Qe ,
xn = A(xn−1 , yn−1 ), yn = A(yn−1 , xn−1 ), n = 1, 2, . . .
satisfy
xn → x ∗ , yn → x ∗ ,
where
n n
xn − x ∗  = o(1 − r  ), yn − x ∗  = o(1 − r  ),
0 < r < 1, r is a constant from (x0 , y0 ).

Proof. From (2.7),

x
A(x, y) = A(tt −1 x, t −1 ty)t  A , ty , x, y ∈ Qe .
t
Then
x
A , ty
t − A(x, y), ∀x, y ∈ Qe , 0 < t < 1. (2.8)
t
For any z0 ∈ Qe , by virtue of A(z0 , z0 ) ∈ Qe , there exist constants m, M > 0, such that
me
A(z0 , z0 )
Me,
and there exists a small 0 < t0 < 1 such that
(1−)/2 −(1−)/2
t0 Me
z0
t0 me,
so we can obtain
(1−)/2 −(1−)/2
z0 t0
A(z0 , z0 )
z0 t0 .  (2.9)

The following proof is the same as that in [5], we omit the proof.

Theorem 2.2 (Guo [5]). Suppose that A: Qe × Qe → Qe is a mixed monotone operator and ∃ a constant  ∈ (0, 1)
such that (2.7) holds. If x∗ is a unique solution of equation
A(x, x) = x ( > 0)
158 X. Lin et al. / Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 196 (2006) 155 – 161

in Qe , then x∗ − x∗  → 0,  → 0 . If 0 <  < 21 , then 0 < 1 < 2 implies x∗ x∗ , x∗  = x∗ and
0 1 2 1 2

lim x∗  = 0, lim x∗  = +∞.

→+∞ →0+

3. Singular fourth-order boundary value problem

This section discusses singular fourth-order boundary value problem

(4)
x (t) +
x  (t) = f (t, x(t)), 0 < t < 1,  > 0,
(3.1)
x(0) = x(1) = x  (0) = x  (1) = 0,

where
< 2 .
Throughout this section we assume that

f (t, x) = q(t)[g(x) + h(x)], t ∈ (0, 1), (3.2)

where

g : [0, +∞) → [0, +∞) is continuous and nondecreasing; (3.3)

h : (0, +∞) → (0, +∞) is continuous and nonincreasing. (3.4)

Let P = {x ∈ C[0, 1]|x(t)0, ∀t ∈ [0, 1]}. Obviously, P is a normal cone of Banach space C[0, 1].

Theorem 3.1. Suppose that there exists  ∈ (0, 1) such that

g(tx)t  g(x), (3.5)

and

h(t −1 x)t  h(x), (3.6)

for any t ∈ (0, 1) and x > 0, and q ∈ C((0, 1), (0, ∞)) satisfies
 1
s − (1 − s)− q(s) ds < + ∞. (3.7)
0

Then (3.1) has a unique positive solution x∗ (t). And moreover, 0 < 1 < 2 implies x∗
x∗ , x∗  = x∗ . If  ∈ (0, 21 ),
1 2 1 2
then

lim x∗  = 0, lim x∗  = +∞.

→0+ →+∞

Proof. Since (3.6) holds, let t −1 x = y, one has

h(y)t  h(ty).

Then
1
h(ty)
 h(y), ∀t ∈ (0, 1), y > 0. (3.8)
t
Let y = 1. The above inequality is
1
h(t)
 h(1), ∀t ∈ (0, 1). (3.9)
t
 X. Lin et al. / Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 196 (2006) 155 – 161 159

From (3.6), (3.8) and (3.9), one has


 1
−1
h(t x)t h(x), h t  h(1),
t
1 1
h(tx)
 h(x), h(t)
 h(1), t ∈ (0, 1), x > 0. (3.10)
t t
Similarly, from (3.5), one has

g(tx)t  g(x), g(t)t  g(1), t ∈ (0, 1), x > 0. (3.11)

Let t = 1/x, x > 1, one has

g(x)
x  g(1), x 1. (3.12)

Let e(t) = t (1 − t), and we define

1
Qe = x ∈ C[0, 1] t (1 − t)
x(t)
Mt(1 − t), t ∈ [0, 1] , (3.13)
M
where M > 1 is chosen such that

  1/(1−)
1 1
M > max G2 (, s) dq(s)[g(1) + s − (1 − s)− h(1)] ds ,
0 0

 
1 1 −1/(1−)
G1 (, )G2 (, s) dq(s)[h(1) + s  (1 − s) g(1)] ds . (3.14)
0 0

For any x, y ∈ Qe , we define

 1
A (x, y)(t) =  G(t, s)q(s)[g(x(s)) + h(y(s))] ds, ∀t ∈ [0, 1]. (3.15)
0

First we show that A : Qe × Qe → Qe .

Let x, y ∈ Qe , from (3.11) and (3.12), we have

g(x(t))
g(Mt(1 − t))
g(M)
M  g(1), t ∈ (0, 1),

and from (3.10) we have

 
1 1
h(y(t))
h t (1 − t)
t − (1 − t)− h
M M

M  t − (1 − t)− h(1), t ∈ (0, 1).
Then, from (2.6) and (3.15), we have
 1 1
A (x, y)(t)
t (1 − t) G2 (, s) dq(s)M  [g(1) + s − (1 − s)− h(1)] ds
0 0

Mt(1 − t), t ∈ [0, 1].
On the other hand, for any x, y ∈ Qe , from (3.10) and (3.11), we have
 
1 1 1
g(x(t))g t (1 − t) t  (1 − t) g t  (1 − t)  g(1),
M M M
and

1 1
h(y(t))h(Mt(1 − t))h(M) = h  h(1), t ∈ (0, 1).
1/M M
160 X. Lin et al. / Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 196 (2006) 155 – 161

Thus, from (2.6) and (3.15), we have

 1 1
A (x, y)(t)t (1 − t) G1 (, )G2 (, s) dq(s)M − [h(1) + s  (1 − s) g(1)] ds
0 0
1
 t (1 − t), t ∈ [0, 1].
M
So, A is well defined and A (Qe × Qe ) ⊂ Qe .
Next, for any l ∈ (0, 1), one has
 1
A (lx, l −1 y)(t) =  G(t, s)q(s)[g(lx(s)) + h(l −1 y(s))] ds
0
 1
 G(t, s)q(s)[l  g(x(s)) + l  h(y(s))] ds
0
= l  A (x, y)(t), t ∈ [0, 1].

So the conditions of Theorems 2.1 and 2.2 hold. Therefore there exists a unique x∗ ∈ Qe such that A (x ∗ , x ∗ ) = x∗ .
It is easy to check that x∗ is a unique positive solution of (3.1) for given  > 0. Moreover, Theorem 2.2 means that if
0 < 1 < 2 , then x∗ (t)
x∗ (t), x∗ (t)  = x∗ (t) and if  ∈ (0, 21 ), then
1 2 1 2

lim x∗  = 0, lim x∗  = +∞.

→0+ →+∞

This completes the proof. 

Example. Consider the following singular fourth-order boundary value problem:

(4)
x (t) +
x  (t) = (x a + x −b ), 0 < t < 1,
(3.16)
x(0) = x(1) = x  (0) = x  (1) = 0,

where
< 2 , , a, b > 0,  0.

Applying Theorem 3.1, we can find (3.16) has a unique positive solution x∗ (t) provided

max{a, b} < 1. (3.17)

In addition, 0 < 1 < 2 implies x∗
x∗ , x∗  = x∗ . If max{a, b} ∈ (0, 21 ), then
1 2 1 2

lim x∗  = 0, lim x∗  = +∞.

→0+ →+∞

To see that, we put

 = max{a, b}, q(t) = 1, g(x) = x a , h(x) = x −b .

Thus 0 <  < 1 and

g(tx) = t a g(x)t  g(x), h(t −1 x) = t b h(x)t  h(x),

for any t ∈ (0, 1) and x > 0, and

 1
s − (1 − s)− ds < + ∞,
0

thus all conditions in Theorem 3.1 are satisfied.

 X. Lin et al. / Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 196 (2006) 155 – 161 161

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