The study of a fourth-order differential equation: existence, uniqueness and a dynamical system approach

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the problem of existence and uniqueness of solutions for the semilinear fourth-order differential equation uiv – ku′′ + a(x)u+c(x) f (u) = 0. Existence and uniqueness is proved using variational methods and maximum principles. We also give a dynamical system approach to the equation. We study the bifurcation of the system and show that the behaviour of the stationary points S (α, 0, 0, 0) depend on the relation between the parameter k and β = f ′(α).