Existence of Oscillatory Solutions of Singular Nonlinear Differential Equations
Irena Rachลฏnkovรก,1Lukรกลก Rachลฏnek,1and Jan Tomeฤek1
Academic Editor: Yuri V. Rogovchenko
Received10 Oct 2010
Revised25 Feb 2011
Accepted23 Mar 2011
Published19 May 2011
Abstract
Asymptotic properties of solutions of the singular differential equation are described. Here, f is Lipschitz continuous on โ and has at least two zeros 0 and . The function p is continuous on [0, ) and has a positive continuous derivative on (0, ) and . Further conditions for f and p under which the equation has oscillatory solutions converging to 0 are given.
1. Introduction
For , , and , consider the equation
where
Let us put
Moreover, we assume that fulfils
and denote
Due to (1.2)โ(1.4), we see that is decreasing and positive on and increasing and positive on .
Equation (1.1) arises in many areas. For example, in the study of phase transitions of Van der Waals fluids [1โ3], in population genetics, where it serves as a model for the spatial distribution of the genetic composition of a population [4, 5], in the homogenous nucleation theory [6], and in relativistic cosmology for description of particles which can be treated as domains in the universe [7], in the nonlinear field theory, in particular, when describing bubbles generated by scalar fields of the Higgs type in the Minkowski spaces [8]. Numerical simulations of solutions of (1.1), where is a polynomial with three zeros, have been presented in [9โ11]. Close problems about the existence of positive solutions can be found in [12โ14].
In this paper, we investigate a generalization of (1.1) of the form
where satisfies (1.2)โ(1.5) and fulfils
Equation (1.7) is singular in the sense that . If , with , then satisfies (1.8), (1.9), and (1.7) is equal to (1.1).
Definition 1.1. A function which satisfies (1.7) for all is called a solution of (1.7).
Consider a solution of (1.7). Since , we have and the assumption, yields . We can find and such that for . Integrating (1.7), we get
Consequently, the condition
is necessary for each solution of (1.7). Denote
Definition 1.2. Let be a solution of (1.7). If , then is called a damped solution.
If a solution of (1.7) satisfies or , then we call a bounding homoclinic solution or an escape solution. These three types of solutions have been investigated in [15โ18]. Here, we continue the investigation of the existence and asymptotic properties of damped solutions. Due to (1.11) and Definition 1.2, it is reasonable to study solutions of (1.7) satisfying the initial conditions
Note that if , then a solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) satisfies , and consequently is not a damped solution. Assume that , then , and if we put , a solution of (1.7), (1.13) is a constant function equal to on . Since we impose no sign assumption on for , we do not consider the case . In fact, the choice of between two zeros and 0 of has been motivated by some hydrodynamical model in [11].
A lot of papers are devoted to oscillatory solutions of nonlinear differential equations. Wong [19] published an account on a nonlinear oscillation problem originated from earlier works of Atkinson and Nehari. Wong's paper is concerned with the study of oscillatory behaviour of second-order Emden-Fowler equations
where is nonnegative and absolutely continuous on . Both superlinear case () and sublinear case () are discussed, and conditions for the function giving oscillatory or nonoscillatory solutions of (1.14) are presented; see also [20]. Further extensions of these results have been proved for more general differential equations. For example, Wong and Agarwal [21] or Li [22] worked with the equation
where is a positive quotient of odd integers, is positive, , , , for all . Kulenoviฤ and Ljuboviฤ [23] investigated an equation
where , , or for all . The investigation of oscillatory and nonoscillatory solutions has been also realized in the class of quasilinear equations. We refer to the paper [24] by Ho, dealing with the equation
where , , , , , .
Oscillation results for the equation
where are positive, can be found in [25]. We can see that the nonlinearity in (1.14) is an increasing function on having a unique zero at .
Nonlinearities in all the other (1.15)โ(1.18) have similar globally monotonous behaviour. We want to emphasize that, in contrast to the above papers, the nonlinearity in our (1.7) needs not be globally monotonous. Moreover, we deal with solutions of (1.7) starting at a singular point , and we provide an interval for starting values giving oscillatory solutions (see Theorems 2.3, 2.10, and 2.16). We specify a behaviour of oscillatory solutions in more details (decreasing amplitudesโsee Theorems 2.10 and 2.16), and we show conditions which guarantee that oscillatory solutions converge to 0 (Theorem 3.1).
The paper is organized in this manner: Section 2 contains results about existence, uniqueness, and other basic properties of solutions of the problem (1.7), (1.13). These results which mainly concern damped solutions are taken from [18] and extended or modified a little. We also provide here new conditions for the existence of oscillatory solutions in Theorem 2.16. Section 3 is devoted to asymptotic properties of oscillatory solutions, and the main result is contained in Theorem 3.1.
Let us give an account of this section in more details. The main objective of this paper is to characterize asymptotic properties of oscillatory solutions of the problem (1.7), (1.13). In order to present more complete results about the solutions, we start this section with the unique solvability of the problem (1.7), (1.13) on (Theorem 2.1). Having such global solutions, we have proved (see papers [15โ18]) that oscillatory solutions of the problem (1.7), (1.13) can be found just in the class of damped solutions of this problem. Therefore, we give here one result about the existence of damped solutions (Theorem 2.3). Example 2.5 shows that there are damped solutions which are not oscillatory. Consequently, we bring results about the existence of oscillatory solutions in the class of damped solutions. This can be found in Theorem 2.10, which is an extension of Theorem 3.4 of [18] and in Theorem 2.16, which are new. Theorems 2.10 and 2.16 cover different classes of equations which is illustrated by examples.
Theorem 2.1 (existence and uniqueness). Assume that (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), (1.9) hold and that there exists such that
then the initial problem (1.7), (1.13) has a unique solution . The solution satisfies
Proof. Let , then the assertion is contained in Theoremโโ2.1 of [18]. Now, assume that , then the proof of Theoremโโ2.1 in [18] can be slightly modified.
For close existence results, see also Chapters 13 and 14 of [26], where this kind of equations is studied.
Remark 2.2. Clearly, for and , the problem (1.7), (1.13) has a unique solution and , respectively. Since , no solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with or can touch the constant solutions and . In particular, assume that , , is a solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with , , and (1.2), (1.8), and (1.9) hold. If , then , and if , then .
The next theorem provides an extension of Theorem 2.4 in [18].
Theorem 2.3 (existence of damped solutions). Assume that (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), and (1.9) hold, then for each , the problem (1.7), (1.13) has a unique solution. This solution is damped.
Proof. First, assume that there exists such that satisfies (2.1), then, by Theorem 2.1, the problem (1.7), (1.13) has a unique solution satisfying (2.2). Assume that is not damped, that is,
By (1.3)โ(1.5), the inequality holds. Since fulfils (1.7), we have
Multiplying (2.4) by and integrating between 0 and , we get
and consequently
By (2.3), we can find that such that , (), and hence, according to (1.5),
which is a contradiction. We have proved that , that is, is damped. Consequently, assumption (2.1) can be omitted.
Example 2.4. Consider the equation
which is relevant to applications in [9โ11]. Here, , , , and . Hence for , for , and
Consequently, is decreasing and positive on and increasing and positive on . Since and , there exists a unique such that . We can see that all assumptions of Theorem 2.3 are fulfilled and so, for each , the problem (2.8), (1.13) has a unique solution which is damped. We will show later (see Example 2.11), that each damped solution of the problem (2.8), (1.13) is oscillatory.
In the next example, we will show that damped solutions can be nonzero and monotonous on with a limit equal to zero at . Clearly, such solutions are not oscillatory.
Example 2.5. Consider the equation
where
We see that in (2.10) and the functions and satisfy conditions (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), and (1.9) with . Clearly, . Further,
Since , assumption (1.5) yields and . By Theorem 2.3, for each , the problem (2.10), (1.13) has a unique solution which is damped. On the other hand, we can check by a direct computation that for each the function
is a solution of equation (2.10) and satifies conditions (1.13). If , then on , and if , then , on . In both cases, .
In Example 2.5, we also demonstrate that there are equations fulfilling Theorem 2.3 for which all solutions with , not only those with , are damped. Some additional conditions giving, moreover, bounding homoclinic solutions and escape solutions are presented in [15โ17].
In our further investigation of asymptotic properties of damped solutions the following lemmas are useful.
Lemma 2.6. Assume (1.2), (1.8), and (1.9). Let be a damped solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with which is eventually positive or eventually negative, then
Proof. Let be eventually positive, that is, there exists such that
Denote . Let , then and, by Remark 2.2, . Assume that on , then is increasing on , and there exists . Multiplying (2.4) by , integrating between and , and using notation (1.4), we obtain
Letting , we get
Since the function is positive and increasing, it follows that it has a limit at , and hence there exists also . If , then , which is a contradiction. Consequently
Letting in (2.4) and using (1.2), (1.9) and , we get , and so , which is contrary to (2.18). This contradiction implies that the inequality on cannot be satisfied and that there exists such that . Since on , we get by (1.2), (1.7), and (1.13) that on . Due to , we see that on . Therefore, is decreasing on and . Using (2.16) with in place of , we deduce as above that (2.18) holds and that . Consequently, . We have proved that (2.14) holds provided . If , then we take and use the above arguments. If is eventually negative, we argue similarly.
Lemma 2.7. Assume (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), (1.9), and
Let be a solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with , then there exists such that
Proof. Assume that such does not exist, then is positive on and, by Lemma 2.6, satisfies (2.14). We define a function
By (2.19), we have and
By (1.9) and (2.19), we get
Since is positive on , conditions (2.14) and (2.20) yield
Consequently, there exist and such that
By (2.22), is positive on and, due to (2.24) and (2.27), we get
Thus, is decreasing on and . If , then , contrary to the positivity of . If , then on and for . Then (2.28) yields for . We get which contradicts . The obtained contradictions imply that has at least one zero in . Let be the first zero of . Then on and, by (1.2) and (1.7), on . Due to Remark 2.2, we have also .
For negative starting value, we can prove a dual lemma by similar arguments.
Lemma 2.8. Assume (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), (1.9), (2.19) and
Let be a solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with , then there exists such that
The arguments of the proof of Lemma 2.8 can be also found in the proof of Lemma 3.1 in [18], where both (2.20) and (2.29) were assumed. If one argues as in the proofs of Lemmas 2.7 and 2.8 working with , and , in place of 0, and , one gets the next corollary.
Corollary 2.9. Assume (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), (1.9), (2.19), (2.20), and (2.29). Let be a solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with . (I) Assume that there exist and such that
then there exists such that
(II) Assume that there exist and such that
then there exists such that
Note that if all conditions of Lemmas 2.7 and 2.8 are satisfied, then each solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with has at least one simple zero in . Corollary 2.9 makes possible to construct an unbounded sequence of all zeros of any damped solution . In addition, these zeros are simple (see the proof of Theorem 2.10). In such a case, has either a positive maximum or a negative minimum between each two neighbouring zeros. If we denote sequences of these maxima and minima by and , respectively, then we call the numbers amplitudes of .
In [18], we give conditions implying that each damped solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with has an unbounded set of zeros and decreasing sequence of amplitudes. Here, there is an extension of this result for .
Theorem 2.10 (existence of oscillatory solutions I). Assume that (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), (1.9), (2.19), (2.20), and (2.29) hold, Then each damped solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with is oscillatory and its amplitudes are decreasing.
Proof. For , the assertion is contained in Theoremโโ3.4 of [18]. Let be a damped solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with . By (2.2) and Definition 1.2, we can find such that
Step 1. Lemma 2.7 yields satisfying (2.21). Hence, there exists a maximal interval such that on . If , then is eventually negative and decreasing. On the other hand, by Lemma 2.6, satisfies (2.14). But this is not possible. Therefore, and there exists such that (2.31) holds. Corollary 2.9 yields satisfying (2.32) with . Therefore, has just one negative local minimum between its first zero and second zero .Step 2. By (2.32) there exists a maximal interval , where . If , then is eventually positive and increasing. On the other hand, by Lemma 2.6, satisfies (2.14). We get a contradiction. Therefore and there exists such that (2.33) holds. Corollary 2.9 yields satisfying (2.34) with . Therefore has just one positive maximum between its second zero and third zero .Step 3. We can continue as in Steps 1 and 2 and get the sequences and of positive local maxima and negative local minima of , respectively. Therefore is oscillatory. Using arguments of the proof of Theoremโโ3.4 of [18], we get that the sequence is decreasing and the sequence is increasing. In particular, we use (2.5) and define a Lyapunov function by
then
Consequently,
So, sequences and are decreasing and
Finally, due to (1.4), the sequence is decreasing and the sequence is increasing. Hence, the sequence of amplitudes is decreasing, as well.
Example 2.11. Consider the problem (1.7), (1.13), where and . In Example 2.4, we have shown that (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), and (1.9) with , are valid. Since
we see that (2.19), (2.20), and (2.29) are satisfied. Therefore, by Theorem 2.10, each damped solution of (2.8), (1.13) with is oscillatory and its amplitudes are decreasing.
Example 2.12. Consider the problem (1.7), (1.13), where
then , ,
We can check that also all remaining assumptions of Theorem 2.10 are satisfied, and this theorem is applicable here.
Assume that does not fulfil (2.20) and (2.29). It occurs, for example, if with for in some neighbourhood of 0, then Theorem 2.10 cannot be applied. Now, we will give another sufficient conditions for the existence of oscillatory solutions. For this purpose, we introduce the following lemmas.
Lemma 2.13. Assume (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), (1.9), and
Let be a solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with , then there exists such that
Proof. Assume that such does not exist, then is positive on and, by Lemma 2.6, satisfies (2.14). In view of (1.7) and (1.2), we have on . From (2.45), it follows that there exists such that
Motivated by arguments of [27], we divide (1.7) by and integrate it over interval . We get
Using the per partes integration, we obtain
From (1.8) and (1.9), it follows that there exists such that
and therefore
From the fact that for (see (2.45)), we have
then
Multiplying this inequality by , we get
and integrating it over , we obtain
and therefore,
According to (2.53), we have
and consequently,
Integrating it over , we get
From (2.44), it follows that
which is a contradiction.
By similar arguments, we can prove a dual lemma.
Lemma 2.14. Assume (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), (1.9), (2.44), and
Let be a solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with , then, there exists such that
Following ideas before Corollary 2.9, we get the next corollary.
Corollary 2.15. Assume (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), (1.9), (2.44), (2.45), and (2.62). Let be a solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with , then the assertions I and II of Corollary 2.9 are valid.
Now, we are able to formulate another existence result for oscillatory solutions. Its proof is almost the same as the proof of Theorem 2.10 for and the proof of Theorem 3.4 in [18] for . The only difference is that we use Lemmas 2.13, 2.14, and Corollary 2.15, in place of Lemmas 2.7, 2.8, and Corollary 2.9, respectively.
Theorem 2.16 (existence of oscillatory solutions II). Assume that (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), (1.9), (2.44), (2.45), and (2.62) hold, then each damped solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with is oscillatory and its amplitudes are decreasing.
Example 2.17. Let us consider (1.7) with
where and are real parameters.Case 1. Let and , then all assumptions of Theorem 2.16 are satisfied. Note that satisfies neither (2.20) nor (2.29) and hence Theorem 2.10 cannot be applied. Case 2. Let and , then all assumptions of Theorem 2.10 are satisfied. If , then also all assumptions of Theorem 2.16 are fulfilled, but for , the function does not satisfy (2.44), and hence Theorem 2.16 cannot be applied.
3. Asymptotic Properties of Oscillatory Solutions
In Lemma 2.6 we show that if is a damped solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) which is not oscillatory then converges to 0 for . In this section, we give conditions under which also oscillatory solutions converge to 0.
Theorem 3.1. Assume that (1.2)โ(1.5), (1.8), and (1.9) hold and that there exists such that
then each damped oscillatory solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with satisfies
Proof. Consider an oscillatory solution of the problem (1.7), (1.13) with .Step 1. Using the notation and some arguments of the proof of Theorem 2.10, we have the unbounded sequences , , , and , such that
where , is a unique local maximum of in , is a unique local minimum of in , . Let be given by (2.36) and then (2.39) and (2.40) hold and, by (1.2)โ(1.4), we see that
Assume that (3.2) does not hold. Then . Motivated by arguments of [28], we derive a contradiction in the following steps.Step 2 (estimates of ). By (2.36) and (2.39), we have
and the sequences and are decreasing. Consider . Then and there are satisfying and such that
Since for (see (2.39)), we get by (2.36) and (3.6) the inequalities and , and consequently and . Therefore, due to (1.4), there exists such that
Similarly, we deduce that there are , satisfying and such that
The behaviour of and inequalities (3.7) and (3.8) yield
Step 3 (estimates of ). We prove that there exist such that
Assume on the contrary that there exists a subsequence satisfying . By the mean value theorem and (3.7), there is such that . Since for , we get by (2.16) the inequality
and consequently
which is a contradiction. So, satisfying (3.10) exists. Using the mean value theorem again, we can find such that and, by (3.6),
Similarly, we can find such that
If we put , then (3.10) is fulfilled. Similarly, we can prove
Step 4 (estimates of ). We prove that there exist such that
Put . By (3.9), for , . Therefore,
Due to (1.9), we can find such that
Let fulfil , then, according to (2.4), (3.11), (3.17), and (3.18), we have
Integrating (3.19) from to and using (3.6), we get for . Similarly we get for . Therefore
By analogy, we put and prove that there exists such that
Inequalities (3.10), (3.15), (3.20), and (3.21) imply the existence of fulfilling (3.16).Step 5 (construction of a contradiction). Choose and integrate the equality in (2.37) from to . We have
Choose such that . Further, choose , and assume that , then, by (3.6),
By virtue of (3.1) there exists such that for . Thus, and
Due to (3.10) and , we have
and the mean value theorem yields such that
By (3.10) and (3.16), we deduce
Thus,
Using (3.24)โ(3.28) and letting to โ, we obtain
Using it in (3.22), we get , which is a contradiction. So, we have proved that . Using (2.4) and (3.4), we have
Since the function is increasing, there exists
Therefore, there exists
If , then , which contradicts (3.4). Therefore, and (3.2) is proved. If , we argue analogously.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the referees for valuable comments and suggestions. This work was supported by the Council of Czech Government MSM 6198959214.
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