Abstract
An algorithm for constructing two sequences of successive approximations of a solution of the nonlinear boundary value problem for a nonlinear differential equation with ‘maxima’ is given. The case of a boundary condition of anti-periodic type is investigated. This algorithm is based on the monotone iterative technique. Two sequences of successive approximations are constructed. It is proved both sequences are monotonically convergent. Each term of the constructed sequences is a solution of an initial value problem for a linear differential equation with ‘maxima’ and it is a lower/upper solution of the given problem. A computer realization of the algorithm is suggested and it is illustrated on a particular example.
MSC: 34K10, 34K25, 34B15.
Keywords:
differential equations with ‘maxima’; nonlinear boundary value problem; approximate solution; computer realization1 Introduction
Differential equations with ‘maxima’ are adequate models of real world problems, in which the present state depends significantly on its maximum value on a past time interval (see [1-4], monograph [5]).
Note that usually differential equations with ‘maxima’ are not possible to be solved in an explicit form and that requires the application of approximate methods. In the current paper, the monotone iterative technique [6,7], based on the method of lower and upper solutions, is theoretically proved to a boundary value problem for a nonlinear differential equation with ‘maxima’. The case when the nonlinear boundary function is a nondecreasing one with respect to its second argument is studied. This type of the boundary function covers the case of an anti-periodic boundary condition. An improved algorithm of monotone-iterative techniques is suggested. The main advantage of this scheme is connected with the construction of the initial conditions.
2 Preliminary notes and definitions
Let
be a given fixed point and h be a positive constant. Consider the set
Consider the following nonlinear differential equation with ‘maxima’:
with a boundary condition
and an initial condition
In this paper, we study boundary condition (2) in the case when the function
is nondecreasing with respect to its second argument y. So, the anti-periodic boundary value problem is a partial case of boundary condition
(2). Note that similar problems are investigated for ordinary differential equations
[8], delay differential equations [9] and impulsive differential equations [10], and some approximate methods are suggested. The presence of the maximum of the unknown
function requires additionally some new comparison results, existence results as well
as a new algorithm for constructing successive approximations to the exact unknown
solution.
Let
be such that
on
. Define the following sets:

Definition 1 The function
is said to be from the class
if for any
and for any
such that
, the inequality
holds.
Definition 2 The function
is said to be quasi-nondecreasing in
if for any
and for any
such that
, the inequality
holds.
In connection with the construction of successive approximations, we will introduce a couple of quasi-solutions of boundary value problem (1)-(3).
Definition 3 We will say that the functions
form a couple of quasi-solutions of boundary value problem (1)-(3), if they satisfy
the equations
, (1) and (3).
Definition 4 We will say that the functions
form a couple of quasi-lower and quasi-upper solutions of boundary value problem
(1)-(3), if
(4)and
(5)In the proof of our main results, we will use the following lemma.
Lemma 1 (Comparison result)
Let the following conditions be fulfilled:
1. The functions
satisfy the inequality
2. The function
satisfies the inequalities
(7)
(8)Proof Assume the statement of Lemma 1 is not true. Consider the following two cases.
Case 1: Let
. According to the assumption, it follows that there exists
such that
for
,
and
.
Denote
, where λ is a positive constant. Let the point
be such that
.
According to the mean value theorem, it follows that there exists
such that
From inequalities
,
and (7), we obtain
Inequality (10) contradicts (6).
Case 2: Let
. Define a function
by the equality
, where
is a small enough constant.
Therefore,
and
satisfies inequality (7). From case 1 it follows
for
. Take a limit as
and obtain
for
. □
In our further investigations, we will use the following result for differential equations with ‘maxima’ which is a partial case of Theorem 3.1.1 [5].
Lemma 2 (Existence and uniqueness)
Let the following conditions be fulfilled:
2. The functions
and satisfy inequality (6).
Then the initial value problem for a linear differential equation with ‘maxima’

3 Monotone-iterative method
We will give an algorithm for obtaining an approximate solution of the boundary value problem for a nonlinear differential equation with ‘maxima’ (1)-(3).
Theorem 1Let the following conditions be fulfilled:
1. The functions
form a couple of quasi-lower and quasi-upper solutions of (1)-(3) such that
for
.
2. The function
is quasi-nondecreasing in
and
.
3. The function
and for
such that
,
the inequality
holds, where the functions
satisfy inequality (6).
Then there exist two sequences
and
such that
(a) The functions
(
) and
is a couple of quasi-lower and quasi-upper solutions of boundary value problem (1)-(3).
(b) The sequence
is nondecreasing.
(c) The sequence
is nonincreasing.
(11)hold.
(e) Both sequences are uniformly convergent on
, and
is a couple of quasi-solutions of boundary value problem (1)-(3) in
.
(f) If additionally the function
is Lipschitz in
, then there exists a unique solution
of boundary value problem (1)-(3) and
for
.
Proof We will give an algorithm for construction of successive approximations to the unknown exact solution of nonlinear boundary value problem (1)-(3).
Assume the functions
and
,
, are constructed. Then consider both initial value problems for the linear differential
equations with ‘maxima’
(12)
(13)and
(14)
(15)where
and
According to Lemma 2, initial value problems (12), (13) and (14), (15) have unique
solutions
.
So, step by step we can construct two sequences of functions
and
.
Now, we will prove by induction that for
,
(H3)
is a couple of quasi-lower and quasi-upper solutions of boundary value problem (1)-(3).
Assume the claims (H1)-(H3) are satisfied for
.
Define the function
by the equality
.
Let
. Then according to condition 2 of Theorem 1, the inductive assumption and the definition
of the functions
,
, we have
Let
. From (H1) for
, condition 3 of Theorem 1, the definition of the functions
,
and (12), we get
Note that for any
the following inequality holds:
From inequalities (17) and (18) it follows
According to Lemma 1, we get
for
. Thus,
for
.
Define the function
by the equality
. Then for
we have
From equation (14), the inductive assumption, the definition of the functions
,
and condition 3 of Theorem 1, it follows the validity of the inequality
According to Lemma 1, we get
for
, i.e., the claim (H1) is true for
.
Define the function
by the equality
.
Let
. From condition 2 of Theorem 1, the inductive assumption and the definition of the
functions
,
, we obtain
Let
. According to the choice of the functions
,
, condition 3 of Theorem 1 and inequality
, we get
According to Lemma 1, it follows
for
. Therefore, the claim (H2) is satisfied for
.
Now, we will prove the claim (H3) for
.
From (H1) for
, condition 2 of Theorem 1 and the choice of the function
, we obtain
(21)Let
. From condition 3 of Theorem 1, inequalities (18) and (H1), we get
Similarly, we prove the function
satisfies inequalities (5). Therefore, the claim (H3) is true for
. Furthermore, the functions
.
For any fixed
, the sequences
and
are nondecreasing and nonincreasing, respectively, and they are bounded by
and
.
Therefore, both sequences converge pointwisely and monotonically. Let
and
for
. According to Dini’s theorem, both sequences converge uniformly and the functions
,
are continuous. Additionally, the claims (H1), (H2) prove
.
Now, we will prove that for any
the following equality holds:
For any
, we introduce the notation
. From condition (H1) it follows that for any
the inequalities
hold and thus,
,
, i.e., the sequence
is monotone nondecreasing and bounded from above by
for any
. Therefore, there exists the limit
.
From the monotonicity of the sequence of the quasi-lower solutions
, we get that for
the inequality
holds. Let
be such that
.
Assume
. Then there exists a natural number N such that the inequalities
hold. Therefore, there exists
such that
or
. The obtained contradiction proves the assumption is not valid.
Assume
. According to the definition of the function
, it follows that for the fixed number
, we have
. Then there exists a natural number N such that
and
. Therefore,
. The obtained contradiction proves the assumption is not valid.
Therefore, the required equality (23) is fulfilled.
In a similar way, we can prove that for any
the equality
holds.
Take a limit as
in (13) and get
Taking a limit in the integral equation equivalent to (12), we obtain the function
satisfies equation (1) for
.
In a similar way, we can prove that
satisfies equation (1) for
and
. Therefore, the couple
is a couple of quasi-solutions of (1)-(3) in
such that
for
.
Let the function
be Lipschitz. Then if (1) has a solution
, it is unique (see [11]). In this case,
and for
,
□
4 Applications
We will apply the given above algorithm for approximate solving of a nonlinear boundary value problem.
Example
Consider the following nonlinear boundary value problem for a nonlinear differential equation with ‘maxima’:
(26)
(27)Boundary value problem (26), (27) is of type (1)-(3), where
,
,
and
.
Let
and
. The couple
is a couple of quasi-lower and quasi-upper solutions of boundary value problem (26),
(27).
where
,
for
. Thus, condition 3 of Theorem 1 holds.
The function
is quasi-nondecreasing with respect to y and
,
.
The above given problem has a zero solution. We will apply the procedure given in Theorem 1 to obtain two sequences, which are monotonically convergent to 0.
The function
,
, is a solution of problem (12), (13), which is reduced to the following linear initial
value problem:
The function
,
, is a solution of problem (14), (15), which is reduced to the following linear initial
value problem:
According to Lemma 2, initial value problems (28) and (29) have unique solutions
and
, respectively. Because of the presence of the maximum of the unknown function over
a past time interval, there is no explicit formula for the exact solutions of (28)
and (29). We use a computer program based on a modified numerical method to solve
these problems (see [12]).
Also, by a computer realization of the scheme given in Theorem 1 and applied to problems (28) and (29), we obtain the values in Table 1.
Table 1. Values of the successive approximations
and
,
From Table 1 and Figure 1, it is obvious that the sequence
is increasing and the sequence
is decreasing and both monotonically converge to the unique solution 0 of nonlinear
boundary value problem (26), (27).
Figure 1. Graphic of the successive approximations
and
,
.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Authors’ contributions
Each of the authors SH, AG and KS contributed to each part of the work equally and read and proved the final version of the manuscript.
References
-
Agarwal, R, Hristova, S: Strict stability in terms of two measures for impulsive differential equations with ‘supremum’. Appl. Anal.. 91(7), 1379–1392 (2012). Publisher Full Text
-
Bohner, M, Georgieva, A, Hristova, S: Nonlinear differential equations with ‘maxima’: parametric stability in terms of two measures. Inf. Sci. Appl. Math.. 7(1), 41–48 (2013)
-
Bohner, M, Hristova, S, Stefanova, K: Nonlinear integral inequalities involving maxima of the unknown scalar functions. Math. Inequal. Appl.. 12(4), 811–825 (2012)
-
Henderson, J, Hristova, S: Eventual practical stability and cone valued Lyapunov functions for differential equations with ‘Maxima’. Commun. Appl. Anal.. 14(4), 515–524 (2010)
-
Bainov, D, Hristova, S: Differential Equations with Maxima, Taylor & Francis/CRC, Boca Raton (2011)
-
Ladde, G, Lakshmikantham, V, Vatsala, A: Monotone Iterative Techniques for Nonlinear Differential Equations, Pitman, New York (1985)
-
Nieto, J, Yu, J, Yan, J: Monotone iterative methods for functional differential equations. Nonlinear Anal.. 32, 741–747 (1998). Publisher Full Text
-
Jankowski, T: Ordinary differential equations with nonlinear boundary conditions of antiperiodic type. Comput. Math. Appl.. 47, 1419–1428 (2004). Publisher Full Text
-
Jankowski, T: On delay differential equations with nonlinear boundary conditions. Bound. Value Probl.. 2005, 201–214 (2005)
-
Jankowski, T: First-order impulsive ordinary differential equations with advanced arguments. J. Math. Anal. Appl.. 331, 1–12 (2007). Publisher Full Text
-
Hristova, S, Stefanova, K: Linear integral inequalities involving maxima of the unknown scalar functions. Funkc. Ekvacioj. 53, 381–394 (2010). Publisher Full Text
-
Golev, A, Hristova, S, Rahnev, A: An algorithm for approximate solving of differential equations with ‘maxima’. Comput. Math. Appl.. 60, 2771–2778 (2010). Publisher Full Text












































