Existence and nonexistence results for a class of fourth‐order coupled singular boundary value problems arising in the theory of epitaxial growth

Abstract

In this article, we propose novel coupled nonlinear singular boundary value problems arising in epitaxial growth theory. The coupled equations are nonlinear, non‐self‐adjoint, and singular and have no exact solutions. We derive some qualitative properties of the coupled solutions, which depend on the size of parameters that occur in the coupled system. To prove the existence of the coupled solutions, we apply the monotone iterative technique on equivalent coupled integral equations in the presence of upper and lower solutions. We also compute the bounds for the parameters, which indicates the existence of coupled solutions for small values of the parameters, and nonexistence for large positive values of these parameters. To illustrate the theory developed, we consider test cases and compute the sequence of upper and lower solutions. To verify the bounds on the parameters, we have used a type of Adomian decomposition method.