Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2018
We are concerned with the nth order differential equation y(n) = (x, y, y′, …,y(n-1)), where it is assumed throughout that f is continuous on [α,β) × Rn, α < β≤∞, and that solutions of initial value problems are unique and exist on [α, β). The definition of the first conjugate point function η1(t) for linear homogeneous equations is extended to this nonlinear case. Our main concern is what properties of this conjugacy function are valid in the nonlinear case.