Abstract
In this paper, we present some properties of the forward \((\alpha,\beta )\)-difference operators, and the existence results of two nonlocal boundary value problems for second-order forward \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference equations. The existence and uniqueness results are proved by using the Banach fixed point theorem, and the existence of at least one positive solution is established by using the Krasnoselskii’ fixed point theorem.
Similar content being viewed by others
1 Introduction
The difference calculus is known as the calculus without considering limits and deals with sets of non-differentiable functions. The difference calculus appears in many applications such as statistics, computing, electrical circuit analysis, dynamical systems, economics, biology, and other fields; see for example [1–7] and the references therein. There are two types of difference operators, one based on the forward (delta) difference operator \(\Delta _{h}f(t)=\frac{f(t+1)- f(t)}{h}\), and one on the backward (nabla) difference operator \(\nabla_{h}f(t)=\frac{f(t)- f(t-h)}{h}\); if \(h=1\), then Δ and ∇ are the standard difference operators. There is not much research involving the development of h-sums and h-difference operators (see [8–13]). Therefore, there is a gap in the literature as regards the details of this operation. In this paper, we aim to study the forward \((\alpha,\beta )\)-difference of f defined by
where the coefficient of \(f(t)\) and \(f(t+h)\) can be chosen [14].
In particular, since the boundary value problem for forward \((\alpha ,\beta)\)-difference equations has not been studied, we attempt to fill this gap by considering the existence and uniqueness result of the nonlocal Neumann boundary value problem for a second-order forward \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference equation,
where \((h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{h,Th}:=\{h,2h,\ldots,Th\}\), \(\alpha ,\beta,h>0\), \(\alpha<\beta\), \(f\in C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h} \times {\mathbb{R}}\times{\mathbb{R}},{\mathbb{R}} )\), \(\phi_{1},\phi_{2}:C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h},{\mathbb{R}} )\rightarrow{\mathbb{R}}\), and for \(\varphi\in ( (h{\mathbb {N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h} \times (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h} ,[0,\infty) )\), \((\Psi u)(t) := ( {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}\varphi u ) (t) = h \sum_{s=0}^{\frac{t}{h}-1}\varphi(t,s) u(hs)\).
Furthermore, we study the existence of at least one positive solution of boundary value problem for a second-order forward \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference equation of the form
where \(F\in C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{ (1+\frac{\beta }{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h} \times[0,\infty),[0,\infty) )\) and \(\theta:C ( (h{\mathbb {N}} ) _{ (1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h}, [0,\infty) )\rightarrow [0,\infty)\).
In this paper, the plan is as follows. In Sect. 2 we recall some definitions and basic lemmas, and present some properties of the forward \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference operators. In this section, we also derive a representation for the solution to (1.1) and (1.2) by converting the problem to equivalent summation equations. In Sect. 3, we show the existence and uniqueness result of problem (1.1). In Sects. 4 and 5, we show the properties of Green’s function and the existence of at least one positive solution for problem (1.2) by using Krasnoselskii’s fixed point theorem in a cone. Finally, some examples are provided to illustrate our results in the last section.
Theorem 1.1
([15])
Let E be a Banach space, and \(K\subset E\) be a cone. Assume \(\Omega_{1}\), \(\Omega_{2}\) are open subsets of E with \(0\in \Omega_{1}\), \(\overline{\Omega}_{1}\subset\Omega_{2}\), and let
be a completely continuous operator such that
-
(i)
\(\|Au\|\leqslant\|u\|\), \(u\in K\cap\partial\Omega_{1}\), and \(\|Au\|\geqslant\|u\|\), \(u\in K\cap\partial\Omega_{2}\), or
-
(ii)
\(\|Au\|\geqslant\|u\|\), \(u\in K\cap\partial\Omega_{1}\), and \(\|Au\|\leqslant\|u\|\), \(u\in K\cap\partial\Omega_{2}\).
Then A has a fixed point in \(K\cap(\overline{\Omega}_{2}\setminus\Omega_{1})\).
Lemma 1.1
([16] (Arzelá–Ascoli theorem))
A set of functions in \(C[a,b]\) with the sup norm, is relatively compact if and only it is uniformly bounded and equicontinuous on \([a,b]\).
Lemma 1.2
([16])
If a set is closed and relatively compact then it is compact.
2 Preliminaries
In the following, there are notations, definitions, and lemmas which are used in the main results.
Let \({\mathbb{N}}_{a}:=\{a,a+1,a+2,\ldots\}\), \({\mathbb{N}}_{a,b}:=\{ a,a+1,a+2,\ldots,b=a+k\}\), \((h{\mathbb{N}})_{a}:=\{a,a+h,a+2h,\ldots\}\) and \((h{\mathbb{N}})_{a,b}:=\{a,a+h,a+2h,\ldots,b=a+kh\}\) for some \(k \in{\mathbb{N}}\), \(a\in{\mathbb{R}}\).
Definition 2.1
For \(\alpha,\beta,h>0\) and f defined on \([0,\infty)\), the forward \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference of f is defined by
Furthermore, we define the higher-order \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference by
Example 2.1
\({_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}(1)=\frac{\beta-\alpha}{h}\) and \({_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}(t)=\frac{\beta(t+h)-\alpha t }{h}= ( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{h} )t+\beta\).
Remark 2.1
-
(i)
If \(\alpha=\beta=1\), the difference operator \(_{h}\Delta _{(1,1)}\) becomes the forward h-difference operator
$$\Delta_{h}f(t)=\frac{ f(t+h)- f(t)}{h}. $$ -
(ii)
Let \(f(t)=\frac{1}{\alpha} ( \frac{\alpha}{\beta} )^{\frac{t}{h}}g(t)\) for \(t \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{a}\). Then
$$\begin{aligned} {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}f(t)=\frac{1}{h} \biggl[ \frac{\beta}{\alpha} \biggl( \frac{\alpha}{\beta} \biggr)^{\frac{t}{h}+1}g(t+h) - \biggl( \frac {\alpha}{\beta} \biggr)^{\frac{t}{h}}g(t) \biggr] = \biggl( \frac{\alpha }{\beta} \biggr)^{\frac{t}{h}}\Delta_{h}g(t). \end{aligned}$$
The right inverse of the operator \({_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}\) or the \((\alpha,\beta)\)-sum operator is defined as follows.
Definition 2.2
Let \(\alpha,\beta,h>0\) and \((h{\mathbb{N}})_{a,b} \subset(h{\mathbb{N}})_{c}\). Assuming that \(f,g:(h{\mathbb{N}})_{c}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\) and \(f(t)=\frac {1}{\alpha} ( \frac{\alpha}{\beta} )^{\frac{t}{h}}g(t)\), we define the \((\alpha,\beta)\)-sum of f by
and for \(a,b \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{c+h}\), \(a< b\), the \((\alpha,\beta)\)-sum of f from a to b defined by
Example 2.2
-
(i)
If \(f(t)=1\) for \(t \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{c}\), then we have \(g(t)=\alpha ( \frac{\beta}{\alpha} )^{\frac{t}{h}}\) and
$${_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}(1)=h \sum _{k=\frac{c}{h}}^{\frac {t}{h}-1}\frac{\alpha^{k-1}}{\beta^{k}} \biggl( \frac{\beta^{k}}{\alpha ^{k-1}} \biggr) =h \sum_{k=\frac{c}{h}}^{\frac{t}{h}-1}1=t-c. $$ -
(ii)
If \(f(t)=t\) for \(t \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{c}\), then we have \(g(t)=\alpha ( \frac{\beta}{\alpha} )^{\frac{t}{h}}t\) and
$${_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}(t)=h \sum _{k=\frac{c}{h}}^{\frac {t}{h}-1}\frac{\alpha^{k-1}}{\beta^{k}} \biggl( \frac{\beta^{k}}{\alpha ^{k-1}}hk \biggr) =h^{2} \sum_{k=\frac{c}{h}}^{\frac{t}{h}-1}k= \frac {1}{2}(t-c) (t+c-h). $$
In the following lemma, we introduce the properties of forward \((\alpha ,\beta)\)-operators.
Lemma 2.1
Letting \(\alpha,\beta,h>0\) and \(f: (h{\mathbb{N}})_{a}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}\),
Proof
Letting \(f(t)=\frac{1}{\alpha} ( \frac{\alpha}{\beta } )^{\frac{t}{h}}g(t)\) for \(t \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{a}\), we have
From Remark 2.1(ii), we obtain
This completes the proof. □
Example 2.3
-
(i)
If \(f(t)=1\) for \(t \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{a}\), then we have
$$\begin{aligned}& {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}{_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}(1) = \beta+(\beta-\alpha) \sum_{k=\frac{a}{h}}^{\frac{t}{h}-1}(1)= \beta + \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{h} \biggr) (t-a), \\& {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}{_{h}} \Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}(1) = \beta ( 1-1 ) + \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{h} \biggr) {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha ,\beta)}^{-1}(1)= \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{h} \biggr) (t-a). \end{aligned}$$Note that if f is defined on \((h{\mathbb{N}})_{ (\frac{\beta }{\beta-\alpha} ) h}\), we obtain
$$\begin{aligned}& {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}{_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}(1) = \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{h} \biggr)t, \\& {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}{_{h}} \Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}(1) = \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{h} \biggr)t-\beta. \end{aligned}$$ -
(ii)
If \(f(t)=t\) for \(t \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{a}\), then we have
$$\begin{aligned}& {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}{_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}(t)= \beta t+(\beta-\alpha) \sum_{k=\frac{a}{h}}^{\frac{t}{h}-1}(kh)= \beta t+ \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{2h} \biggr) (t-a) (t+a-h), \\& \begin{aligned} {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}{_{h}} \Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}(t)&=\beta ( t-a ) + \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{h} \biggr) {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha ,\beta)}^{-1}(t) \\ &=\beta ( t-a ) + \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{2h} \biggr) (t-a) (t+a-h). \end{aligned} \end{aligned}$$Note that if f is defined on \((h{\mathbb{N}})_{ (\frac{\beta }{\beta-\alpha} ) h}\), we obtain
$$\begin{gathered} {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}{_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}(t) = \frac {1}{2} \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{h} \biggr) t^{2}+ \biggl( \alpha+\frac {\beta}{2} \biggr) t -\frac{1}{2} \biggl( \frac{\alpha}{\beta-\alpha} \biggr)h, \\ {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}^{-1}{_{h}} \Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)}(t) = \frac {1}{2} \biggl( \frac{\beta-\alpha}{h} \biggr) t^{2}+ \biggl( \alpha+\frac {\beta}{2} \biggr) t -\frac{1}{2} \biggl( \frac{2\beta^{2}+\alpha}{\beta -\alpha} \biggr)h. \end{gathered} $$
To study the solution of the boundary value problems (1.1), we need the following lemmas that deals with linear variant of the boundary value problems (1.1).
Lemma 2.2
Let \(\alpha,\beta,h>0\), \(\alpha<\beta\), function \(x\in C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h} ,[0,\infty) )\) and functionals \(\phi_{1},\phi_{2}:C ( (h{\mathbb {N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h},[0,\infty) )\rightarrow [0,\infty)\) be given. Then the problem
has the unique solution
Proof
From \({_{h}}\Delta^{2}_{(\alpha,\beta)}u(t-h)=\frac{1}{h} [ \beta {_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)} u(t)-\alpha{_{h}}\Delta_{(\alpha,\beta)} u(t-h) ]\) and the first equation of (2.1), we create the system of n equations
Considering \(\beta\cdot(A_{1})+\alpha\cdot(A_{2})\), we obtain
For \(\beta\cdot(A_{n+1})+\alpha^{2} \cdot(A_{3})\), we have the next equation:
Repeating the same process, we have the equation \((A_{2n-2})\)
Finally, for \(\beta\cdot(A_{2n-2})+\alpha^{n-1} \cdot(A_{n})\), we get the equation \((A_{2n-1})\)
So, we obtain
For \(t=nh \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{0,Th}\), \(n\in{\mathbb{N}}\), we can write (2.3) in the form
where \(\sum_{s=p}^{q} y(s)=0\); if \(p< q\). By substituting \(t=0,h,\ldots ,nh\), \(n\in{\mathbb{N}}\) into (2.5), we have the system of n equations
Considering \(\alpha\cdot(B_{1})+\beta\cdot(B_{2})\), we get
Next, for \(\alpha\cdot(B_{n+1})+\beta^{2} \cdot(B_{3})\), we get
Repeating this process, we have the equation \((B_{2n})\)
For \(t=nh\), \(n\in{\mathbb{N}}\), we can write \((B_{2n})\) in the form
Hence
for \(t \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{0,(T+1)h}\) and A, B are some constants.
Using the \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference for (2.7), we have
By using the boundary conditions of (2.1), we obtain
The constants A and B can be obtained by solving the system of equations (2.9) and (2.10),
Substituting all constants A, B into (2.7), we obtain (2.2). This completes the proof. □
Next, we present the following lemma that deals with linear variant of the boundary value problem (1.2).
Lemma 2.3
Let \(\alpha,\beta,h>0\), \(\alpha<\beta\), function \(y\in C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta -\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h} ,[0,\infty) )\) and functional \(\theta:C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta }{\beta-\alpha} ) h},[0,\infty) )\rightarrow [0,\infty)\) be given. Then the problem
has the unique solution
Proof
With the same argument of Lemma 2.2, we obtain
Using the first boundary condition of (2.11), we obtain \(u ( (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h )=0\).
So, (2.13) can be written in the form
for \(t \in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h}\); C is some constant.
Using the \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference for (2.14), we have
By using the second boundary conditions of (2.11), we obtain
Solving the above equation, we have
Substituting constants C into (2.14), we obtain (2.12). This completes the proof. □
Lemma 2.4
Problem (2.11) has the unique solution
where
and
with
Proof
The unique solution of problem (2.1) can be written as
This completes the proof. □
3 Existence and uniqueness of a solution for problem (1.1)
In this section, we present the existence and uniqueness result for problem (1.1). Let \(E=C ((h{\mathbb{N}})_{0,(T+1)h}, {\mathbb{R}} )\) be a Banach space of all function u with the norm defined by
and also define an operator \({\mathcal{F}}:E\rightarrow E\)
Obviously, problem (1.1) has solutions if and only if the operator \(\mathcal{F}\) has fixed points.
Theorem 3.1
Assume that function \(f\in C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h} \times[0,\infty),[0,\infty) )\), functionals \(\phi_{1},\phi_{2}:C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h},[0,\infty) )\rightarrow [0,\infty)\), and for \(\varphi\in ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h} \times (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h} ,[0,\infty) )\), with \(\varphi_{0}=\max \{\varphi(t,s):(t,s)\in (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h}\times (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{0, (T+1 ) h} \}\). In addition, suppose that:
- \((H_{1})\) :
-
There exist constants \(\lambda_{1},\lambda_{2}>0\), such that
$$\begin{aligned} \bigl\vert f(t,u,\Psi u)-f(t,v,\Psi v) \bigr\vert \leq& \lambda_{1} \Vert u-v \Vert +\lambda_{2} \Vert \Psi u- \Psi v \Vert , \end{aligned}$$for each \(t\in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{0,(T+1)h}\) and \(u, v\in E\).
- \((H_{2})\) :
-
There exist constants \(\ell_{1},\ell_{2}>0\), such that
$$\begin{aligned}& \bigl\vert \phi_{1}(u)-\phi_{1}(v) \bigr\vert \leq \ell_{1} \Vert u-v \Vert , \\& \bigl\vert \phi_{2}(u)-\phi_{2}(v) \bigr\vert \leq \ell_{2} \Vert u-v \Vert , \end{aligned}$$for each \(u, v\in E\).
- \((H_{3})\) :
-
\(\Theta:=\ell\Omega+ ( \lambda_{1}+\lambda_{2}\frac {h\varphi_{0}(T+1)}{\alpha} )\Phi < 1\), where
$$\begin{aligned}& \ell := \max\{\ell_{1},\ell_{2}\}, \end{aligned}$$(3.2)$$\begin{aligned}& \Omega := \frac{ h }{(\beta-\alpha) } \biggl\{ 1+ \beta+ \frac{2\beta^{2}}{(\beta-\alpha)T} \biggr\} , \end{aligned}$$(3.3)$$\begin{aligned}& \Phi := \frac{h^{2}T}{2\alpha\beta} \biggl( \frac{\beta}{\alpha} \biggr)^{T} \biggl\{ \biggl[T+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} \biggr] \biggl[1+ \frac{\beta }{\beta-\alpha} \biggr] +T+1 \biggr\} . \end{aligned}$$(3.4)
Then problem (1.1) has a unique solution in \((h{\mathbb {N}})_{0,(T+1)h}\).
Proof
Denote
For each \(t\in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{0,(T+1)h}\) and \(u,v\in{\mathcal{C}}\), we obtain
and
This implies that \({\mathcal{F}}\) is a contraction. Therefore, by using the Banach fixed point theorem, \({\mathcal{F}}\) has a fixed point which is a unique solution of problem (1.1) on \(t\in(h{\mathbb {N}})_{0,(T+1)h}\). □
4 Properties of Green’s function for problem (1.2)
The necessary for considering the existence of a positive solution to problem (1.2) is to prove that Green’s function \(G(t,s)\) in (2.19) satisfies a variety of properties. Firstly, we prove some necessary preliminary lemmas as follows.
Lemma 4.1
The coefficient function \({\mathcal{C}}(t)\) given in (2.18) is positive and strictly increasing in t, for \(t\in(h{\mathbb {N}})_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta }{\beta-\alpha} ) h}\). In addition,
Proof
It is clear that \({\mathcal{C}}(t) \geq0 \) for \(t\in (h{\mathbb{N}})_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h}\). Next, we prove that \({\mathcal{C}}(t)\) is strictly increasing in \(t\in(h{\mathbb {N}})_{0,(T+1)h}\). Note that the forward \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference with respect to t for \({\mathcal{C}}(t) \) is
From \(\alpha<\beta\), it implies that
Hence \({\mathcal{C}}(t)\) is strictly increasing in \(t\in(h{\mathbb {N}})_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta }{\beta-\alpha} ) h}\).
Finally, observe that
The proof is complete. □
Corollary 4.1
Let \(I:= [ \frac{h}{4} ( T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) , \frac{3h}{4} ( T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) ]\). There is a constant \(M_{{\mathcal{C}}} \in(0,1)\) such that \(\min_{t \in I} {\mathcal{C}}(t)=M_{{\mathcal{C}}}\|{\mathcal {C}}\|\) where \(\|\cdot\|\) is the usual maximum norm.
Proof
Since \({\mathcal{C}}(t)\) is strictly increasing in \(t\in (h{\mathbb{N}})_{0,(T+1)h}\), it follows that there exists a positive constant \(M_{{\mathcal{C}}} \), such that
It is clear that \(M_{{\mathcal{C}}} \in(0,1)\). The proof is complete. □
Lemma 4.2
Let \(\alpha<\beta\) and \(G ( \frac{t}{h},s ) \) be Green’s function given in (2.19). Then \(G ( \frac{t}{h},s ) \geq0\) for each \((t,s)\in (h{\mathbb{N}})_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha } ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h}\times{\mathbb {N}}_{\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha}+1,T+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha}}\).
Proof
We aim to show that \(g_{i} ( \frac{t}{h},s ) >0\), \(i=1,2\), for each admissible pair \((t,s)\).
Firstly, we consider the function
To guarantee that \(g_{2} ( \frac{t}{h},s )>0\), it suffices to show that
Thus, we conclude that \(g_{2} ( \frac{t}{h},s )>0\) for their respective domains.
Next, we consider the function \(g_{1} ( \frac{t}{h},s )>0\) for \(s\in{\mathbb{N}}_{\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha}+1,\frac{t}{h}-1} \) where
To guarantee that \(g_{1} ( \frac{t}{h},s )>0\), it suffices to show that
So, we conclude that \(g_{1} ( \frac{t}{h},s )>0\) for their respective domains.
Consequently, it follows that \(g_{i} ( \frac{t}{h},s )>0\) for each \(i=1,2\). Therefore, \(G ( \frac{t}{h},s )>0\). □
Lemma 4.3
Let \(\alpha<\beta\) and \(G ( \frac{t}{h},s )\) be Green’s function given in (2.19). Then it follows that
Proof
Our aim is to show that the forward \((\alpha,\beta )\)-difference with respect to t satisfies with
and
This implies that \(g_{1}\) is decreasing and \(g_{2}\) is increasing in t. So, \(G ( \frac{t}{h},s )\leq G ( s,s )\) for all \((t,s)\in{\mathbb{N}}_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h} \times{\mathbb{N}}_{\frac {\beta}{\beta-\alpha}+1,T+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha}}\).
Firstly, for \(g_{2} ( \frac{t}{h},s )\), we have
for all \((t,s)\in{\mathbb{N}}_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h} \times{\mathbb {N}}_{\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha}+1,T+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha}}\).
Next, for \(g_{1} ( \frac{t}{h},s )\), we note that
Here, we obtain
for all \((t,s)\in{\mathbb{N}}_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h} \times{\mathbb {N}}_{\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha}+1,T+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha}}\).
Now, note that
Consequently, this implies that
Observe that \(G ( s,s )=\frac{h^{2}}{\alpha}g_{2} ( s,s )=\frac{h^{2}}{\alpha} ( \frac{\alpha}{\beta} )^{s} (\frac {s}{(\beta-\alpha)T +2\beta} ) [ (\beta-\alpha)(T-s)+2\beta ]\).
Thus, by the discussion in the first paragraph of this proof, we deduce that (4.2) holds. The proof is complete. □
Lemma 4.4
Let \(\alpha<\beta\) and \(G ( \frac{t}{h},s )\) be Green’s function given in (2.19). There exists a number \(0<\sigma<1\) such that, for \(s \in{\mathbb{N}}_{\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha}+1,T+\frac {\beta}{\beta-\alpha}}\),
Proof
We define the following notation:
For \(t< sh\) and \(\frac{h}{4} ( T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) \leq t\leq \frac{3h}{4} ( T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} )\), we find that
For \(t>sh\), since \(g_{1} ( \frac{t}{h},s )\) is decreasing with respect to t, we have
Finally, since \(\sigma_{1}>\frac{1}{4}\) and \(\sigma_{2}<1\), it follows that
We can conclude that (4.3) holds. □
Lemma 4.5
Let φ be a nonnegative functional. Then there is \(\sigma^{*}\in (0,1)\) such that
Proof
By Lemma 4.4 and Corollary 4.1, we find that there exist constants \(\sigma,M_{ {\mathcal{C}}}\in(0,1)\) such that
We define
Hence, we obtain (4.7). This completes the proof. □
5 Existence of positive solution to problem (1.2)
In this section, we consider the existence of at least one positive solution for problem (1.2) by using the Krasnoselskii fixed point theorem in a cone as mentioned in Sect. 1. Let \({\mathcal {E}}=C ((h{\mathbb{N}})_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h}, {\mathbb{R}} )\) be a Banach space of all function u with the norm defined by \(\|u\|=\max_{t\in(h{\mathbb{N}})_{ (\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha } ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h}}\{|u(t)|\}\). Define the cone \({\mathcal{P}}\subseteq{\mathcal{E}}\) by
where \(\sigma^{*}\) is the number defined by (4.10).
From the nonlinear equation (1.2), we note that there exists a solution u of (1.2) if and only if u is a fixed point of the operator \({\mathcal{A}}:{\mathcal {P}}\rightarrow{\mathcal{P}}\) which is defined by
where G is Green’s function for problem (1.2).
Lemma 5.1
Suppose that \(F\in C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{ (1+\frac {\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha } ) h} \times[0,\infty),[0,\infty) )\) and \(\theta: [4] C ( (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{ (1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h},[0,\infty) )\rightarrow [0,\infty)\). Then the operator \(\mathcal{A}:{\mathcal {P}}\rightarrow{\mathcal{P}}\) is completely continuous.
Proof
Since \(G ( \frac{t}{h},s ) \geq0\) for all \((t,s)\), we have \({\mathcal{A}}\geq0\) for all \(u\in{\mathcal{P}}\). For a constant \(R>0\), we define
and let \(M= \max_{(t,u)\in (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{ (1+\frac {\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha } ) h}\times B_{R}} \vert F (t,u(t) ) \vert \), \(N=\sup_{u\in B_{R}} |\theta(u)|\). Then, for \(u\in B_{R}\), we obtain
Therefore, \(\|{\mathcal{A}}u \|= \mathcal{K}\), and hence \({\mathcal{A}}(B_{R})\) is uniformly bounded.
We next prove that \({\mathcal{A}}(B_{R})\) is equicontinuous. For any \(\epsilon>0\), there exists a positive constant \(\delta^{*}=\max \lbrace\delta_{1},\delta_{2},\delta_{3} \rbrace\) such that, for \(u\in B_{R}\) and \(t_{1},t_{2}\in (h{\mathbb{N}} ) _{ (1+\frac {\beta}{\beta-\alpha} ) h, (T+1+\frac{\beta}{\beta-\alpha } ) h}\) with \(t_{1}< t_{2}\),
Then we have
This implies that the set \({\mathcal{A}}(B_{R})\) is an equicontinuous set.
Finally, we apply Lemmas 4.2–4.4 to obtain
and for \(F\in\mathcal{P}\)
So, \({\mathcal{A}}{\mathcal{P}}\subset{\mathcal{P}}\).
Consequently, from the Arzelá–Ascoli theorem, it follows that \({\mathcal{A}}: {\mathcal{P}}\rightarrow{\mathcal{P}}\) is the completely continuous operator. □
We next define
and introduce some assumptions that will be used in the sequel.
- \((X_{1})\) :
-
There exists a constant \(r_{1}>0\) such that
$$\begin{aligned} F \bigl(t,u(t) \bigr)\leq\frac{1}{2} {\mathcal{M}} r_{1} \quad \text{whenever } 0\leq u \leq r_{1}. \end{aligned}$$ - \((X_{2})\) :
-
There exists a constant \(r_{2}>0\) with \(r_{2}< r_{1}\) such that
$$\begin{aligned} F \bigl(t,u(t) \bigr)\geq\frac{1}{2}{\mathcal{N}} r_{2} \quad \text{whenever } \sigma^{*}r_{2} \leq u \leq r_{2}. \end{aligned}$$ - \((X_{3})\) :
-
There exists a constant \(r_{1}>0\) such that for each \(u\in \mathcal{P}\) and \(0\leq\|u\|\leq r_{1}\),
$$\begin{aligned} \theta(u)\leq\frac{1}{2}\Upsilon_{1} r_{1}. \end{aligned}$$ - \((X_{4})\) :
-
There exists a constant \(r_{2}>0\) such that for each \(u\in \mathcal{P}\) and \(\sigma^{*}r_{2}\leq\|u\|\leq r_{2}\),
$$\begin{aligned} \theta(u)\geq\frac{1}{2}\Upsilon_{2} r_{2}. \end{aligned}$$
The following theorem presents the proof of the existence result of at least one positive solution.
Theorem 5.1
Suppose that the conditions \((X_{1})\)–\((X_{4})\) hold. Then problem (1.2) has at least one positive solution, \(u^{*}\) where \(r_{2}\leq\|u^{*}\|\leq r_{1}\).
Proof
Set \(\Omega_{1}=\{u\in{\mathcal{E}} :\|u\|< r_{1} \}\). Then, for \(u\in{\mathcal{P}}\cap\partial\Omega_{1}\), we have
Further, we let \(\Omega_{2}=\{u \in{\mathcal{E}}:\|u\|< r_{2} \}\). Then, for \(u\in {\mathcal{P}}\cap\partial\Omega_{2}\) and by using Lemma 4.4, we find that
We can conclude by Theorem 1.1 that the operator \(\mathcal{A}\) has a fixed point. This implies that problem (1.2) has a positive solution, \(u^{*}\), where \(r_{2}\leq\|u^{*}\| \leq r_{1}\). □
6 Some examples
In this section, we present some examples to illustrate our results.
Example 6.1
Consider the following boundary value problem for the second-order \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference equation:
where \((\Psi u)(t)=\frac{1}{2}\sum_{s=0}^{2t-1}\frac{e^{-4|s-t|}}{100 \sqrt{\pi}} u(sh)\).
Set \(h=\frac{1}{2}\), \(\alpha=\frac{1}{3}\), \(\beta=\frac{3}{2}\), \(T=20\), \(\phi_{1}(u)=\frac{|u|}{(10e)^{2}}\sin^{2}(\pi u)\), \(\phi_{2}(u)=\frac{|u|}{(10 \pi)^{2}}\cos^{2}(\pi u)\), \(\varphi(t,s)=\frac {e^{-4|s-t|}}{100 \sqrt{\pi}}\) and
We find that \(\varphi_{0}=\frac{1}{100\sqrt{\pi}}=0.00564\), and
Thus, \((H1)\) holds with \(\lambda_{1}=7.332\times10^{-26}\) and \(\lambda _{2}=1.615\times10^{-21}\). Since
\((H2)\) holds with \(\ell_{1}=0.00135\) and \(\ell_{2}=0.00101\).
Clearly,
Then we find that
Hence, by Theorem 3.1 problem (6.1) has a unique solution.
Example 6.2
Consider the following boundary value problem for the second-order \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference equation:
where \(C_{i}\) are given positive constants with \(\frac{1}{\pi^{2}}\leq\sum_{i=0}^{6}C_{i}\leq\frac{3}{\pi^{2}}\).
Set \(h=\frac{3}{2}\), \(\alpha=\frac{1}{2}\), \(\beta=\frac{4}{3}\), \(T=5\), \(\theta (u)=\sum_{i=0}^{6}\frac{C_{i}|u(t_{i})|}{1+|u(t_{i})|}\) and \(F ( t,u(t) ) =\frac{e^{-3t}|u|}{(1+|u|) ( t+100 )^{5} }\).
We find
Clearly,
for \(0\leq u\leq r_{1} \leq4.721\times10^{-6}\),
for \(2.755\times10^{-28}=\sigma^{*}r_{2}\leq u\leq r_{2} \leq 1.006\times 10^{-24}\),
and
Therefore, conditions \((X_{1})\)–\((X_{4})\) are satisfied. Consequently, by Theorem 5.1 problem (6.2) has at least one positive solution \(u^{*}\) such that
References
Goodrich, C.S., Peterson, A.C.: Discrete Fractional Calculus. Springer, New York (2015)
Elaydi, S.N.: An Introduction to Difference Equations. Undergraduate Texts in Mathematics. Springer, New York (1996)
Kelley, W.G., Peterson, A.C.: Difference Equations. An Introduction with Applications, 2nd edn. Academic Press, Tokyo (1991)
Lakshmikantham, V., Trigiante, D.: Theory of Difference Equations Numerical Methods and Applications. Mathematics in Science and Engineering, vol. 181. Academic Press, Boston (1988)
Agarwal, R.P.: Difference Equations and Inequalities: Theory, Methods, and Applications. CRC Press, New York (2000)
Agarwal, R.P.: Focal Boundary Value Problems for Differential and Difference Equations. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht (1998)
Agarwal, R.P., O’Regan, D., Wong, P.J.Y.: Positive Solutions of Differential, Difference and Integral Equations. Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht (1999)
Bastos, N.R.O., Ferreira, R.A.C., Torres, D.F.M.: Necessary optimality conditions for fractional difference problems of the calculus of variations. Discrete Contin. Dyn. Syst. 29(2), 417–437 (2011)
Ferreira, R.A.C., Torres, D.F.M.: Fractional h-difference equations arising from the calculus of variations. Appl. Anal. Discrete Math. 5(1), 110–121 (2011)
Mozyrska, D., Girejko, E., Wyrwas, M.: Comparison of h-difference fractional operators. In: Advances in the Theory and Applications of Non-Integer Order Systems. Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering, vol. 257, pp. 191–197. Springer, New York (2013)
Mozyrska, D., Girejko, E.: Overview of the fractional h-difference operators. In: Advances in Harmonic Analysis and Operator Theory. Operator Theory: Advances and Applications, vol. 229, pp. 253–268. Springer, New York (2013)
Wyrwas, M., Mozyrska, D., Girejko, E.: On solutions to fractional discrete systems with sequential h-differences. Abstr. Appl. Anal. 2013, Article ID 475350 (2013)
Mozyrska, D., Wyrwas, M.: Explicit criteria for stability of fractional h-difference two-dimensional systems. Int. J. Dyn. Control 5, 4–9 (2017)
Xavier, G.B.A., Rajiniganth, P., Manuel, M.M.S., Chandrasekar, V.: Forward \((\alpha,\beta)\)-differerence operator and its some applications in number theory. Int. J. Appl. Math. 25(1), 109–124 (2012)
Guo, D., Lakshmikantham, V.: Nonlinear Problems in Abstract Cone. Academic Press, Orlando (1988)
Griffel, D.H.: Applied Functional Analysis. Ellis Horwood, Chichester (1981)
Availability of data and materials
Not applicable.
Funding
This research was funded by King Mongkut’s University of Technology North Bangkok. Contract no. KMUTNB-ART-60-42. The first and second authors would also like to thank Suan Dusit University for the support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The authors declare that they carried out all the work in this manuscript and read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval and consent to participate
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
About this article
Cite this article
Linitda, T., Chasreechai, S. On nonlocal Neumann boundary value problem for a second-order forward \((\alpha,\beta)\)-difference equation. Adv Differ Equ 2018, 372 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13662-018-1793-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13662-018-1793-6