Conjugate points for fractional differential equations

Abstract

Abstract Let b > 0. Let 1 < α ≤ 2. The theory of u 0-positive operators with respect to a cone in a Banach space is applied to study the conjugate boundary value problem for Riemann-Liouville fractional linear differential equations D 0+α u + λp(t)u = 0, 0 < t < b, satisfying the conjugate boundary conditions u(0) = u(b) = 0. The first extremal point, or conjugate point, of the conjugate boundary value problem is defined and criteria are established to characterize the conjugate point. As an application, a fixed point theorem is applied to give sufficient conditions for existence of a solution of a related boundary value problem for a nonlinear fractional differential equation.