Multilicity results for some nonlinear ellitic roblems with asymtotically $${{\varvec{}}}$$-linear terms

Taking any \(p > 1\), we consider the asymptotically p-linear problem

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} - {{\mathrm{div}}}(a(x,u,\nabla u)) + A_t(x,u,\nabla u)\ = \ \lambda ^\infty |u|^{p-2}u + g^\infty (x,u) &{}\quad \hbox {in}\;\Omega ,\\ u\ = \ 0 &{}\quad \hbox {on}\;\partial \Omega , \end{array} \right. \end{aligned}$$

where \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb R^N\), \(N\ge 2\), \(A(x,t,\xi )\) is a real function on \(\Omega \times \mathbb R\times \mathbb R^N\) which grows with power p with respect to \(\xi \) and has partial derivatives \(A_t(x,t,\xi ) = \frac{\partial A}{\partial t}(x,t,\xi )\), \(a(x,t,\xi ) = \nabla _\xi A(x,t,\xi )\). If \(A(x,t,\xi ) \rightarrow A^\infty (x,t)\) and \(\frac{g^\infty (x,t)}{|t|^{p-1}} \rightarrow 0\) as \(|t| \rightarrow +\infty \), suitable assumptions, variational methods and either the cohomological index theory or its related pseudo-index one, allow us to prove the existence of multiple nontrivial bounded solutions in the non-resonant case, i.e. if \(\lambda ^\infty \) is not an eigenvalue of the operator associated to \(\nabla _\xi A^\infty (x,\xi )\). In particular, while in [14] the model problem \(A(x,t,\xi ) = \mathcal{A}(x,t) |\xi |^p\) with \(p > N\) is studied, here our goal is twofold: extending such results not only to a more general family of functions \(A(x,t,\xi )\), but also to the more difficult case \(1 < p \le N\).

     

Large conformal metrics with prescribed sign-changing Gauss curvature

Let \((M,g)\) be a two dimensional compact Riemannian manifold of genus \(g(M)>1\). Let \(f\) be a smooth function on \(M\) such that

$$\begin{aligned} f \ge 0, \quad f\not \equiv 0, \quad \min _M f = 0. \end{aligned}$$

Let \(p_1,\ldots ,p_n\) be any set of points at which \(f(p_i)=0\) and \(D^2f(p_i)\) is non-singular. We prove that for all sufficiently small \(\lambda >0\) there exists a family of “bubbling” conformal metrics \(g_\lambda =e^{u_\lambda }g\) such that their Gauss curvature is given by the sign-changing function \(K_{g_\lambda }=-f+\lambda ^2\). Moreover, the family \(u_\lambda \) satisfies

$$\begin{aligned} u_\lambda (p_j) = -4\log \lambda -2\log \left( \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} \log \frac{1}{\lambda }\right) +O(1) \end{aligned}$$

and

$$\begin{aligned} \lambda ^2e^{u_\lambda }\rightharpoonup 8\pi \sum _{i=1}^{n}\delta _{p_i},\quad \text{ as } \lambda \rightarrow 0, \end{aligned}$$

where \(\delta _{p}\) designates Dirac mass at the point \(p\).

     

An Erdös–Révész Type Law of the Iterated Logarithm for Order Statistics of a Stationary Gaussian Process

Let \(\{X(t):t\in \mathbb R_+\}\) be a stationary Gaussian process with almost surely (a.s.) continuous sample paths, \(\mathbb E X(t) = 0, \mathbb E X^2(t) = 1\) and correlation function satisfying (i) \(r(t) = 1 - C|t|^{\alpha } + o(|t|^{\alpha })\) as \(t\rightarrow 0\) for some \(0\le \alpha \le 2\) and \(C>0\); (ii) \(\sup _{t\ge s}|r(t)|<1\) for each \(s>0\) and (iii) \(r(t) = O(t^{-\lambda })\) as \(t\rightarrow \infty \) for some \(\lambda >0\). For any \(n\ge 1\), consider n mutually independent copies of X and denote by \(\{X_{r:n}(t):t\ge 0\}\) the rth smallest order statistics process, \(1\le r\le n\). We provide a tractable criterion for assessing whether, for any positive, non-decreasing function \(f, \mathbb P(\mathscr {E}_f)=\mathbb P(X_{r:n}(t) > f(t)\, \text { i.o.})\) equals 0 or 1. Using this criterion we find, for a family of functions \(f_p(t)\) such that \(z_p(t)=\mathbb P(\sup _{s\in [0,1]}X_{r:n}(s)>f_p(t))=O((t\log ^{1-p} t)^{-1})\), that \(\mathbb P(\mathscr {E}_{f_p})= 1_{\{p\ge 0\}}\). Consequently, with \(\xi _p (t) = \sup \{s:0\le s\le t, X_{r:n}(s)\ge f_p(s)\}\), for \(p\ge 0\) we have \(\lim _{t\rightarrow \infty }\xi _p(t)=\infty \) and \(\limsup _{t\rightarrow \infty }(\xi _p(t)-t)=0\) a.s. Complementarily, we prove an Erdös–Révész type law of the iterated logarithm lower bound on \(\xi _p(t)\), namely, that \(\liminf _{t\rightarrow \infty }(\xi _p(t)-t)/h_p(t) = -1\) a.s. for \(p>1\) and \(\liminf _{t\rightarrow \infty }\log (\xi _p(t)/t)/(h_p(t)/t) = -1\) a.s. for \(p\in (0,1]\), where \(h_p(t)=(1/z_p(t))p\log \log t\).     

Existence and uniqueness for a class of multi-term fractional differential equations

In this paper, we consider the initial value problem for the nonlinear fractional differential equations

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{l@{\quad }l} D^\alpha u(t)=f(t,u(t),D^{\beta _1}u(t),\ldots ,D^{\beta _N}u(t)), \quad &{}t\in (0,1],\\ D^{\alpha -k}u(0)=0, \quad &{}k=1,2,\ldots ,n, \end{array} \right. \end{aligned}$$

where \(\alpha >\beta _1>\beta _2>\cdots \beta _N>0\), \(n=[\alpha ]+1\) for \(\alpha \notin \mathbb {N}\) and \(\alpha =n\) for \(\alpha \in \mathbb {N}\), \(\beta _j<1\) for any \(j\in \{1,2,\ldots ,N\}\), D is the standard Riemann–Liouville derivative and \(f:[0,1]\times \mathbb {R}^{N+1}\rightarrow \mathbb {R}\) is a given function. By means of Schauder fixed point theorem and Banach contraction principle, an existence result and a unique result for the solution are obtained,respectively. As an application, some examples are presented to illustrate the main results.

     

A global existence and uniqueness result for a class of hyperbolic operators

In this paper a global existence and uniqueness theorem for the Cauchy problem related to the class of hyperbolic operators with double characteristics \(P=D^2_{t} - D^2_{x_1} - (t+ \lambda - \alpha (x_1))^2 D^2_{x_2},\) depending on the parameter \(\lambda \) in the half-space \(\Omega = \mathbb {R}^2 \times ]0, + \infty [\) is proved. In the first part of the paper, a priori estimates in Sobolev spaces \(W^{r,2}\), with \(r\) negative, have been established. Then, the regularity is studied by using these spaces and by constructing a Green’s function in the half-plane for the operator of the waves.     

Multiple positive solutions of the stationary Keller–Segel system

We consider the stationary Keller–Segel equation

$$\begin{aligned} {\left\{ \begin{array}{ll} -\Delta v+v=\lambda e^v, \quad v>0 \quad &{} \text {in }\Omega ,\\ \partial _\nu v=0 &{}\text {on } \partial \Omega , \end{array}\right. } \end{aligned}$$

where \(\Omega \) is a ball. In the regime \(\lambda \rightarrow 0\), we study the radial bifurcations and we construct radial solutions by a gluing variational method. For any given \(n\in \mathbb {N}_0\), we build a solution having multiple layers at \(r_1,\ldots ,r_n\) by which we mean that the solutions concentrate on the spheres of radii \(r_i\) as \(\lambda \rightarrow 0\) (for all \(i=1,\ldots ,n\)). A remarkable fact is that, in opposition to previous known results, the layers of the solutions do not accumulate to the boundary of \(\Omega \) as \(\lambda \rightarrow 0\). Instead they satisfy an optimal partition problem in the limit.

     

Existence Result for a Superlinear Fractional Navier Boundary Value Problems

In this paper, we study the following fractional Navier boundary value problem

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{lllc} D^{\beta }(D^{\alpha }u)(x)=u(x)g(u(x)),\quad x\in (0,1), \\ \displaystyle \lim _{x\longrightarrow 0}x^{1-\beta }D^{\alpha }u(x)=-a,\quad \,\,u(1)=b, \end{array} \right. \end{aligned}$$

where \(\alpha ,\beta \in (0,1]\) such that \(\alpha +\beta >1\), \(D^{\beta }\) and \(D^{\alpha }\) stand for the standard Riemann–Liouville fractional derivatives and a, b are nonnegative constants such that \(a+b>0\). The function g is a nonnegative continuous function in \([0,\infty )\) that is required to satisfy some suitable integrability condition. Using estimates on the Green’s function and a perturbation argument, we prove the existence of a unique positive continuous solution, which behaves like the unique solution of the homogeneous problem.

     

Brownian Paths Homogeneously Distributed in Space: Percolation Phase Transition and Uniqueness of the Unbounded Cluster

We consider a continuum percolation model on \(\mathbb {R}^d\), \(d\ge 1\). For \(t,\lambda \in (0,\infty )\) and \(d\in \{1,2,3\}\), the occupied set is given by the union of independent Brownian paths running up to time t whose initial points form a Poisson point process with intensity \(\lambda >0\). When \(d\ge 4\), the Brownian paths are replaced by Wiener sausages with radius \(r>0\). We establish that, for \(d=1\) and all choices of t, no percolation occurs, whereas for \(d\ge 2\), there is a non-trivial percolation transition in t, provided \(\lambda \) and r are chosen properly. The last statement means that \(\lambda \) has to be chosen to be strictly smaller than the critical percolation parameter for the occupied set at time zero (which is infinite when \(d\in \{2,3\}\), but finite and dependent on r when \(d\ge 4\)). We further show that for all \(d\ge 2\), the unbounded cluster in the supercritical phase is unique. Along the way a finite box criterion for non-percolation in the Boolean model is extended to radius distributions with an exponential tail. This may be of independent interest. The present paper settles the basic properties of the model and should be viewed as a springboard for finer results.     

On a Weighted Singular Integral Operator with Shifts and Slowly Oscillating Data

Let \(\alpha ,\beta \) be orientation-preserving diffeomorphism (shifts) of \(\mathbb {R}_+=(0,\infty )\) onto itself with the only fixed points \(0\) and \(\infty \) and \(U_\alpha ,U_\beta \) be the isometric shift operators on \(L^p(\mathbb {R}_+)\) given by \(U_\alpha f=(\alpha ')^{1/p}(f\circ \alpha )\), \(U_\beta f=(\beta ')^{1/p}(f\circ \beta )\), and \(P_2^\pm =(I\pm S_2)/2\) where

$$\begin{aligned} (S_2 f)(t):=\frac{1}{\pi i}\int \limits _0^\infty \left( \frac{t}{\tau }\right) ^{1/2-1/p}\frac{f(\tau )}{\tau -t}\,d\tau , \quad t\in \mathbb {R}_+, \end{aligned}$$

is the weighted Cauchy singular integral operator. We prove that if \(\alpha ',\beta '\) and \(c,d\) are continuous on \(\mathbb {R}_+\) and slowly oscillating at \(0\) and \(\infty \), and

$$\begin{aligned} \limsup _{t\rightarrow s}|c(t)|<1, \quad \limsup _{t\rightarrow s}|d(t)|<1, \quad s\in \{0,\infty \}, \end{aligned}$$

then the operator \((I-cU_\alpha )P_2^++(I-dU_\beta )P_2^-\) is Fredholm on \(L^p(\mathbb {R}_+)\) and its index is equal to zero. Moreover, its regularizers are described.

     

Eigenvalue Counting Function for Robin Laplacians on Conical Domains

We study the discrete spectrum of the Robin Laplacian \(Q^{\Omega }_\alpha \) in \(L^2(\Omega )\), \(u\mapsto -\Delta u, \quad D_n u=\alpha u \text { on }\partial \Omega \), where \(D_n\) is the outer unit normal derivative and \(\Omega \subset {\mathbb {R}}^{3}\) is a conical domain with a regular cross-section \(\Theta \subset {\mathbb {S}}^2\), n is the outer unit normal, and \(\alpha >0\) is a fixed constant. It is known from previous papers that the bottom of the essential spectrum of \(Q^{\Omega }_\alpha \) is \(-\alpha ^2\) and that the finiteness of the discrete spectrum depends on the geometry of the cross-section. We show that the accumulation of the discrete spectrum of \(Q^\Omega _\alpha \) is determined by the discrete spectrum of an effective Hamiltonian defined on the boundary and far from the origin. By studying this model operator, we prove that the number of eigenvalues of \(Q^{\Omega }_\alpha \) in \((-\infty ,-\alpha ^2-\lambda )\), with \(\lambda >0\), behaves for \(\lambda \rightarrow 0\) as

$$\begin{aligned} \dfrac{\alpha ^2}{8\pi \lambda } \int _{\partial \Theta } \kappa _+(s)^2\mathrm {d}s +o\left( \frac{1}{\lambda }\right) , \end{aligned}$$

where \(\kappa _+\) is the positive part of the geodesic curvature of the cross-section boundary.

     

Anti-periodic mild solutions to semilinear fractional differential equations

In this paper, by using the \(\alpha \)-resolvent family theory, Banach contraction mapping principle and Schauder’s fixed point theorem, we investigate the existence of anti-periodic mild solutions to the semilinear fractional differential equations \(D^{\alpha }_{t}u(t) = Au(t) +f(t,u(t)),\ t\in R,1 \le \alpha \le 2 \) and \(D^{\alpha }_{t}u(t) = Au(t) +f(t,u(t),u'(t)),\ t\in R,1 < \alpha < 2\), where \(A : D(A)\subset X \rightarrow X\) is the infinitesimal generator of an \(\alpha \)-resolvent family defined on a Banach space \(X\) and \(f\) is a suitable function. Furthermore, an example is given to illustrate our results.     

Standard Jordan partitions with three parameters

We extend previous work on standard two-parameter Jordan partitions by Barry (Commun Algebra 43:4231–4246, 2015) to three parameters. Let \(J_r\) denote an \(r \times r\) matrix with minimal polynomial \((t-1)^r\) over a field F of characteristic p. For positive integers \(n_1\), \(n_2\), and \(n_3\) satisfying \(n_1 \le n_2 \le n_3\), the Jordan canonical form of the \(n_1 n_2 n_3 \times n_1 n_2 n_3\) matrix \(J_{n_1} \otimes J_{n_2} \otimes J_{n_3}\) has the form \(J_{\lambda _1} \oplus J_{\lambda _2} \oplus \cdots \oplus J_{\lambda _m}\) where \(\lambda _1 \ge \lambda _2 \ge \cdots \ge \lambda _m>0\) and \(\sum _{i=1}^m \lambda _i=n_1 n_2 n_3\). The partition \(\lambda (n_1,n_2,n_3:p)=(\lambda _1, \lambda _2,\ldots , \lambda _m)\) of \(n_1 n_2 n_3\), which depends on \(n_1\), \(n_2\), \(n_3\), and p, will be called a Jordan partition. We will define what we mean by a standard Jordan partition and give necessary and sufficient conditions for its existence.     

Iteration of certain exponential-like meromorphic functions

The dynamics of functions \(f_\lambda (z)= \lambda \frac{\mathrm{e}^{z}}{z+1}\ \text{ for }\ z\in \mathbb {C}, \lambda >0\) is studied showing that there exists \(\lambda ^* > 0\) such that the Julia set of \(f_\lambda \) is disconnected for \(0< \lambda < \lambda ^*\) whereas it is the whole Riemann sphere for \(\lambda > \lambda ^*\). Further, for \(0< \lambda < \lambda ^*\), the Julia set is a disjoint union of two topologically and dynamically distinct completely invariant subsets, one of which is totally disconnected. The union of the escaping set and the backward orbit of \(\infty \) is shown to be disconnected for \(0<\lambda < \lambda ^*\) whereas it is connected for \(\lambda > \lambda ^*\). For complex \(\lambda \), it is proved that either all multiply connected Fatou components ultimately land on an attracting or parabolic domain containing the omitted value of the function or the Julia set is connected. In the latter case, the Fatou set can be empty or consists of Siegel disks. All these possibilities are shown to occur for suitable parameters. Meromorphic functions \(E_n(z) =\mathrm{e}^{z}(1+z+\frac{z^2}{2!}+\cdots +\frac{z^n}{n!})^{-1}\), which we call exponential-like, are studied as a generalization of \(f(z)=\frac{\mathrm{e}^{z}}{z+1}\) which is nothing but \(E_1(z)\). This name is justified by showing that \(E_n\) has an omitted value 0 and there are no other finite singular value. In fact, it is shown that there is only one singularity over 0 as well as over \(\infty \) and both are direct. Non-existence of Herman rings are proved for \(\lambda E_n \).     

Periodic solutions for some double-delayed differential equations

We prove the existence of positive \(\omega \)-periodic solutions for the double-delayed differential equation

$$\begin{aligned} x^{\prime }(t)-a(t)g(x(t))x(t)=-\lambda (b(t)f(x(t-\tau (t))+c(t)h(x(t-\nu (t))), \end{aligned}$$

where \(\lambda \) is a positive parameter, \(a,b,c,\tau ,\nu \in C(\mathbb {R}, \mathbb {R})\) are \(\omega \)-periodic functions with \(a,b\ge 0,a,b\not \equiv 0,f,g,h\in C([0,\infty ),\mathbb {R})\) with \(g>0\) on \((0,\infty ),\) \(\ h\) is bounded, f is either superlinear or sublinear at \(\infty \) and could change sign.

     

A potential well for an integral functional with singular Lagrangian

This paper concerns a functional of the form

$$\begin{aligned} \Phi (u)=\int _\Omega L(x,u(x),\nabla u(x))\, dx \end{aligned}$$

on the Sobolev space \(H_0^1(\Omega )\) where \(\Omega \) is a bounded open subset of \({\mathbb {R}}^N\) with \(N\ge 3\) and \(0\in \Omega \). The hypotheses on L ensure that \(u\equiv 0\) is a critical point of \(\Phi \), but allow the Lagrangian to be singular at \(x=0\). It is shown that, under these assumptions, the usual conditions associated with Jacobi (positive definiteness of the second variation of \(\Phi \) at \(u\equiv 0\)), Legendre (ellipticity at \(u\equiv 0\)) and Weierstrass [strict convexity of \(L(x,s,\xi )\) with respect to \(\xi \)] from the calculus of variations are not sufficient ensure that \(u\equiv 0\) is a local minimum of \(\Phi \). Using recent criteria for the existence of a potential well of a \(C^1\)-functional on a real Hilbert space, conditions implying that \(u\equiv 0\) lies in a potential well of \(\Phi \) are established. They are shown to be sharp in some cases.

     

Global $$C^{1,\al pha }$$ regularity and e xistence of multi ple solutions for singular p( x)-La placian equations

In this paper we study the following singular p(x)-Laplacian problem

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{l@{\quad }l} - \text{ div } \left( |\nabla u|^{p(x)-2} \nabla u\right) =\frac{ \lambda }{u^{\beta (x)}}+u^{q(x)}, &{} \text{ in }\quad \Omega , \\ u>0, &{} \text{ in }\quad \Omega , \\ u=0, &{} \text{ on }\quad \partial \Omega , \end{array}\right. \end{aligned}$$

where \(\Omega \) is a bounded domain in \(\mathbb {R}^N\), \(N\ge 2\), with smooth boundary \(\partial \Omega \), \(\beta \in C^1(\bar{\Omega })\) with \( 0< \beta (x) <1\), \(p\in C^1(\bar{\Omega })\), \(q \in C(\bar{\Omega })\) with \(p(x)>1\), \(p(x)< q(x) +1 <p^*(x)\) for \(x \in \bar{\Omega }\), where \( p^*(x)= \frac{Np(x)}{N-p(x)} \) for \(p(x) <N\) and \( p^*(x)= \infty \) for \( p(x) \ge N\). We establish \(C^{1,\alpha }\) regularity of weak solutions of the problem and strong comparison principle. Based on these two results, we prove the existence of multiple (at least two) positive solutions for a certain range of \(\lambda \).

     

Chains,antichains, and complements in infinite partition lattices

We consider the partition lattice \(\Pi (\lambda )\) on any set of transfinite cardinality \(\lambda \) and properties of \(\Pi (\lambda )\) whose analogues do not hold for finite cardinalities. Assuming AC, we prove: (I) the cardinality of any maximal well-ordered chain is always exactly \(\lambda \); (II) there are maximal chains in \(\Pi (\lambda )\) of cardinality \(> \lambda \); (III) a regular cardinal \(\lambda \) is strongly inaccessible if and only if every maximal chain in \(\Pi (\lambda )\) has size at least \(\lambda \); if \(\lambda \) is a singular cardinal and \(\mu ^{< \kappa } < \lambda \le \mu ^\kappa \) for some cardinals \(\kappa \) and (possibly finite) \(\mu \), then there is a maximal chain of size \(< \lambda \) in \(\Pi (\lambda )\); (IV) every non-trivial maximal antichain in \(\Pi (\lambda )\) has cardinality between \(\lambda \) and \(2^{\lambda }\), and these bounds are realised. Moreover, there are maximal antichains of cardinality \(\max (\lambda , 2^{\kappa })\) for any \(\kappa \le \lambda \); (V) all cardinals of the form \(\lambda ^\kappa \) with \(0 \le \kappa \le \lambda \) occur as the cardinalities of sets of complements to some partition \(\mathcal {P} \in \Pi (\lambda )\), and only these cardinalities appear. Moreover, we give a direct formula for the number of complements to a given partition. Under the GCH, the cardinalities of maximal chains, maximal antichains, and numbers of complements are fully determined, and we provide a complete characterisation.     

Existence of positive solutions for periodic boundary value problem with sign-changing Green’s function

We prove the existence of positive solutions for the boundary value problem

$$\begin{aligned} \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} y^{\prime \prime }+m^{2}y=\lambda g(t)f(y), &{}\quad 0\le t\le 2\pi , \\ y(0)=y(2\pi ), &{}\quad y^{\prime }(0)=y^{\prime }(2\pi ), \end{array} \right. \end{aligned}$$

for certain range of the parameter \(\lambda >0\), where \(m\in (1/2,1/2+\varepsilon )\) with \(\varepsilon >0\) small, and f is superlinear or sublinear at \(\infty \) with no sign-conditions at 0 assumed.

     

Convergence of the solutions of the discounted equation: the discrete case

We derive a discrete version of the results of Davini et al. (Convergence of the solutions of the discounted Hamilton–Jacobi equation. Invent Math, 2016). If M is a compact metric space, \(c : M\times M \rightarrow \mathbb {R}\) a continuous cost function and \(\lambda \in (0,1)\), the unique solution to the discrete \(\lambda \)-discounted equation is the only function \(u_\lambda : M\rightarrow \mathbb {R}\) such that

$$\begin{aligned} \forall x\in M, \quad u_\lambda (x) = \min _{y\in M} \lambda u_\lambda (y) + c(y,x). \end{aligned}$$

We prove that there exists a unique constant \(\alpha \in \mathbb {R}\) such that the family of \(u_\lambda +\alpha /(1-\lambda )\) is bounded as \(\lambda \rightarrow 1\) and that for this \(\alpha \), the family uniformly converges to a function \(u_0 : M\rightarrow \mathbb {R}\) which then verifies

$$\begin{aligned} \forall x\in X, \quad u_0(x) = \min _{y\in X}u_0(y) + c(y,x)+\alpha . \end{aligned}$$

The proofs make use of Discrete Weak KAM theory. We also characterize \(u_0\) in terms of Peierls barrier and projected Mather measures.

     

Positive solutions of nonlinear multi-point boundary value problems

This paper deals with the existence of positive solutions of nonlinear differential equation

$$\begin{aligned} u^{\prime \prime }(t)+ a(t) f(u(t) )=0,\quad 0<t <1, \end{aligned}$$

subject to the boundary conditions

$$\begin{aligned} u(0)=\sum _{i=1}^{m-2} a_i u (\xi _i) ,\quad u^{\prime } (1) = \sum _{i=1}^{m-2} b_i u^{\prime } (\xi _i), \end{aligned}$$

where \( \xi _i \in (0,1) \) with \( 0< \xi _1<\xi _2< \cdots<\xi _{m-2} < 1,\) and \(a_i,b_i \) satisfy   \(a_i,b_i\in [0,\infty ),~~ 0< \sum _{i=1}^{m-2} a_i <1,\) and \( \sum _{i=1}^{m-2} b_i <1. \) By using Schauder’s fixed point theorem, we show that it has at least one positive solution if f is nonnegative and continuous. Positive solutions of the above boundary value problem satisfy the Harnack inequality

$$\begin{aligned} \displaystyle \inf _{0 \le t \le 1} u(t) \ge \gamma \Vert u\Vert _\infty . \end{aligned}$$